


Nosy Cat

by Sweetferret



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Blood and Violence, Falling In Love, Haikyuu!! Manga Spoilers, M/M, Magic, Mild Angst, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:55:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28177983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sweetferret/pseuds/Sweetferret
Summary: Shouyou has always wanted to become a wizard, but without money or connections his future looks pretty dull.This fate may change after meeting a curious familiar and their owner, but, if only they didn’t hold so many secrets from him, Shouyou could better grasp what he’s really gotten into.
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio
Kudos: 19
Collections: Kagehina Big Bang 2020





	1. The cat

**Author's Note:**

> Hi hi! This is my entry for the KageHina BigBang 2020, but I have to admit I started working on this story in 2017. Back then I wasn't confident in my writing, and though I'm still not completely satisfied with it, what better way to get better than to write, write, write.  
> I'll try to update every two or three weeks, but I can't make promises 'cuz I'm in the middle of my intership and it's kicking my butt.  
> If you want you can skip this part but I really want to thank [Mari](https://twitter.com/TheMariahtyHour) and [Ainu](https://twitter.com/ainudraws) for encouraging me to continue writing despite my insecurities, you both gave me the push I needed! A huge thank you also to [Anna](https://twitter.com/rinpanna) for betaing, you really helped me improve these few chapters! And [Bie](https://twitter.com/moonbieee) for her amazing art of chapter 3! I'll link back to it when she posts it and once I publish that chapter. And last but not least I want to thank everyone back at the kagehinabigbang discord, they made this process so much fun to me and helped me when I got stuck. Everyone, thank you from the bottom of my heart.  
> Now let's get started.

When Shouyou wakes up covered in his own sweat, blankets tossed to the floor, and his pajama shirt missing, he knows it’s going to be one of those days: to be specific, a summer day, where no matter what he’ll want to tear off his skin under the blazing sun.

If only he knew more spells, he could make his room colder, or at least more bearable during the day. And then also maybe, probably, have a more interesting job. That would be nice… Oh, to know how to fly high in the sky, how to throw lighting from his hands at bad guys, how to transport himself anywhere he wants. He’s seen wizards do that stuff, so his life would be so much different if only…

He knows he has the ability—he’s cast basic spells he learnt on his own, but with a good teacher he could do so much more.

His alarm suddenly goes off, the image of himself being taught at one of those fancy schools shattering to pieces, and he remembers his place in the real world—with his regular life and his regular boring job.

Groaning, Shouyou debates if he can afford to stay in bed for five more minutes… Sugawara would scold him, but the worst part would definitely be Sawamura’s punishment for being late…

The alarm times out, leaving the room in silence once more.

Thinking that it’ll sound again in a few minutes anyway, Shouyou rolls over, turning his pillow to enjoy its cooler side and gets comfortable again. Pleased to have extra time to sleep, he almost misses the soft growl by his face. Slowly, he cracks an eye open, but his gaze can only see blackness. A strange texture tickles around his nose and brushes his eyelashes.

Scared, he jumps out of bed, which results in him thumping against the floor. After the initial shock, and trying to calm his frantic heart, Shouyou glances back to the thing that almost made him shit his pants.

Still groggy, his brain takes a minute to put together the pieces of the puzzle before him. Sharp eyes. Long whiskers. Sleek, black fur.

Finally, it clicks: It’s a cat.

“How did you get in here?” Shouyou says to no one in particular. Looking around the room, his eyes stop on the window leading to the balcony. He opened it last night because the heat was unbearable, but beside a few insects, he never imagined any kind of creature would come inside.

The cat meows, staring back at him. Shouyou isn’t sure why it came inside, but maybe he can find its owner’s details on the collar around its neck.

He steps closer and lifts a hand. The cat steps back.

“Don’t worry, buddy. I’m not going to hurt you,” he whispers, slowly approaching it.

The cat’s eyes never leave him, but it doesn’t move either, so he lightly touches its head. Its hair is soft.

“Why did you come in?” He asks, just as his alarm sounds loudly again. The cat meows, then jumps from the bed and rushes to the balcony, hopping to the next one with ease. The tingle of a bell follows it all the way, until it disappears among the morning noises.

Shouyou stares at the spot where he lost view of the black cat, entranced.

That was weird.

The alarm snoozes one more time, and the lack of noise brings him back to reality. He’s going to be late.

He runs to the bathroom, scooping up clothes from a chair, and takes the shortest shower of his life.

Once he’s at work, the cat is mostly forgotten about, merely a strange experience to tell over his lunch break.

That is, until later that night.

When he opens the door to his apartment, the cat is laying on the genkan, looking at him with round, blue eyes.

The sight startles him, not expecting anyone to be waiting for him as soon as he arrived home. But as the surprise leaves him, Shouyou stares back in awe.

“You came back, huh?” He crouches, and tries to pet its head, but it steps back, evading his hand.

He sees the intruder walk all the way to the bedroom, hop onto his bed, and curl up into his mattress before looking at him again.

What a weird cat.

“You know that this isn’t your house, right?” Shouyou asks, taking off his shoes.

He leaves the groceries on the small kitchen counter, then enters his bedroom and puts his backpack on a low table near the bed.

The window is still open, so it isn’t the cat’s fault for entering the wrong apartment again.

Shouyou approaches the furry lump on his bed. It seems to be clean and well fed, so if he is lost, it’s a recent occurrence. Remembering the events of the morning, he knows he needs to better gain its trust this time in order to get a closer look at its collar.

Maybe food will do the trick.

“Do you want any food?” He knows the cat can’t understand him, but there’s no harm in asking anyways

Shouyou definitely didn’t expect the cat to perk up and meow at the question.

Smiling, he runs back to the kitchen and fetches the sashimi he bought. He leaves half of the slices on a plate near the bed. “There you go, buddy.”

Shouyou watches the cat stand, but it doesn't approach the food. _It needs some space_ , he thinks.

Alright, he needs to prepare food for himself anyway.

While he’s boiling water to prepare the noodles, Shouyou ponders over adopting the cat if the owner doesn't show up. He had a few pets when he lived with his parents, but never thought about having one now, mainly because of money. If he barely has enough for himself, how can he sustain another being?

He lifts his eyes from the bowl of steaming food and sees an empty plate, with no sight of the cat anywhere. Shouyou figures it was probably searching for an easy meal.

That night he makes sure to close the window before going to sleep. If a cat wandered inside, he doesn’t want to imagine what else could break into his home, even if the possibility is small.

The next morning though, even before his alarm sounds, something moves over his back, claws kneading on his shoulder blades. Shouyou stands suddenly, shoving the cat against the wall. It glares at him and starts meowing loudly.

“What do you want?!” Shouyou shouts, eyes narrowing as his heart pounds rapidly in his chest.

The cat stops its whining and sits, staring at him with bored eyes.

“How did you get in here?” Shouyou rubs his eyes, then his temples—a headache coming on.

The cat’s meows are hidden under the sound of Shouyou’s alarm. He’s quick to turn it off, mainly because the noise is making his sudden headache worse.

Looking at the cat, he sighs.

Without thinking about his noisy guest, Shouyou goes to take a shower, hoping that it's enough to soothe his pain. It works a bit, and he even has time to hastily eat breakfast. Certainly a better start than yesterday.

The ominous silence reminds him of the cat. It’s not on the bed anymore, but Shouyou doesn’t have time to check around the house for its location; if he does, he’ll have to clean the restaurant’s bathrooms, and he definitely doesn’t want that.

The headache is almost gone by the time he returns home. And the cat, as expected, is there, resting on top of a pillow on the bed. Shouyou doesn’t get why he so quickly accepted this as the new normal, but he’s not gonna think about it too hard.

He catches sight of his window half open and wonders if he opened it that morning.

“Oi, I can’t keep you. So you can go,” he says, motioning for it to go out. The cat licks one of its front legs, not even bothered by him.

“Alright then.” Shouyou tries to pick it up, but the cat slips from his grasp easily. “Fine, but I’m not gonna feed you today!” He crosses his arms, and stares at the cat now on his table.

Shouyou thinks his words worked, because when he finishes making dinner, the cat is nowhere to be seen. He searches for it this time, but, upon finding nothing, he locks the window and continues with what’s left of his day.

That’s hardly the last he sees of the cat, though.

The next few weeks, the first thing he sees after waking up and coming home is the black cat.

Every morning and night he checks then checks again if the doors and windows are locked properly. Despite this, it always seems to find a way in. And at the sightless distraction all it leaves behind are patches of fur on Shouyou’s blankets and a splitting headache.

Searching over and over for a hidden hole, Shouyou starts thinking it must be coming from the sink pipes—even though that’s a dumb assumption—but nothing makes sense anymore. Maybe someone cursed him for taking an order wrong…

Though the cat is kind of bothersome, at least it doesn't interfere with his daily life. The headaches though, start getting worse as the days go by. He tries to hide his pain to not cause any trouble to his coworkers, but as the weeks crawl by it gets harder to keep his cheerful mood.

When the pain becomes unbearable, small, unusual things start to happen around him: an object will start floating around the area he's cleaning, or orders he's delivering will disappear into thin air. Sawamura, the owner of the place, notices this and tells him to go to a doctor, because that's not normal for a human. He listens but it leads him nowhere, as the doctor simply says there's nothing physiologically wrong with him and just sends him to see a witch. The witch actually tells him there's something odd and gives him an awful liquid for the effects of this weird illness. Strangely, though, can’t tell if it's a curse or a disease.

The medicine works at least—relieving the pain and the strange magic problems—but the headache never vanishes completely: a small pressure lingering over the day and getting stronger by night.

Confused and tired, Shouyou gives up on the doctors and witches and accepts he may have to learn to live with eternal migraines.

One day, he comes back home early, dismissed from work for the day after his headache got so bad he completely lost his focus. Sawamura even forced him to take the next day off, too, shooing him out the door with explicit instructions to rest.

He feels so frustrated and powerless. He can’t afford to lose any more shifts since the medical appointments and medicine used a big part of his budget, and he definitely won’t touch his savings account. If anything, he should be taking more shifts not losing them over something so dumb as a headache. He _needs_ to find a solution.

Before he has the time to enter his apartment, a meow alerts him of a noisy guest. He sighs as the cat comes into view, resting on his bed as usual. That’s another problem he needs to attend.

The headache comes in first though. He tries to remember if anything out of the ordinary happened when they started. No recollection of messing up orders, being terrible late, eating something different or going somewhere strange comes to his mind. But the cat...

“That’s it!” he shouts.

The headaches started when the cat showed up, so it _must_ be related!

“This is your fault!” He runs for the cat, trying to grab it, but like always it escapes gracefully from his hands. “I must have a weird allergy to cats! That’s why my head won’t stop hurting! Come here, you little—”

In his rush, he trips over something and falls face down on the floor. Defeated, he stays there, groaning and whining, head throbbing.

The sudden sound of a bell calls his ear’s attention. The cat circles him a couple of times,then stops near his head.

A light touch on the top of his head makes him look up. The cat is staring at him with a mocking expression and its paw touches his forehead briefly. After a moment, it sits on its haunches, chest sticking out as the tag and bell shine under the evening sun.

Shouyou stares hard at the collar. Hoping the owner wrote a contact number or something, he moves his hand slowly. The cat doesn’t move, so Shouyou takes the metal plate between his fingers, grateful it doesn’t fight back or struggle. The tag reads ‘Kyuu’. He hums, happy at learning the actual name of the cat. He turns it over and his heart starts pumping inside his chest. There’s a series of numbers written on the back. Could this be…?

Taking out his cellphone, he puts in the number and hits call, praying that the owner answers.

After what feels like ages, a deep voice answers, “Hello?” Thank God.

“Do you have a black cat named Kyuu?” Shouyou asks. He stands up from the floor and winces as his pain suddenly worsens.

“Wh— Yeah? Who is this?”

“Your cat has been coming to my place for over a month! Can you come and take it, please?!” Shouyou doesn’t know why he’s yelling now, but he’s so tired and his head is killing him. “I think I have a cat allergy because since he, or she—I’m not sure—started coming, I’ve had this massive headache that won’t go away! Not with medicine or witch potions or _anything!”_

There’s silence from the other end, and Shouyou takes the moment to look back at the cat, who went back to his favorite place:the pillow on Shouyou’s bed.

From the other side of the phone, Shouyou hears a sigh. “Okay, don’t let them leave. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Yes, please.”

After telling the other person his address, they hum in thought and hang up without another word.

Leaving the phone on the table, Shouyou looks at Kyuu. It stretches and yawns without a care in the world.

A sudden thought appears in his mind: what if it disappears like always does and the owner comes and gets angry because it's not here anymore?

Determined to not let that happen, he goes near the bed and traps Kyuu under one of the covers. The cat tosses around, meowing and hissing, but Shouyou doesn’t let him go. He’ll make sure Kyuu doesn’t escape.

“Don’t move, Kyuu! Your owner will come and—”

The bell rings several times, and both of them go quiet. That can’t be the cat’s owner—they finished talking seconds ago! But he can’t let the cat escape if he opens the door. So, Shouyou rolls wraps it up like a burrito with the blanket and carries it to the door with him. The cat hisses and meows as he swings the door open.

“Yes?” Shouyou asks, struggling to restrain the cat with only one hand.

“What are you doing to my cat?”

Shouyou looks up from the bundle in his arms to the person at his door. The man looks as angry as the cat right now. It’s actually laughable how much they resemble each other physically—with their dark hair and blue eyes—and Shouyou would laugh, if he weren’t taller and so scary.

“Wh—? I—? Your cat?” Shouyou manages to say. He flinches as the man glares harder at him.

“Yes, we talked on the phone,” he says, trying to grab the cat from Shouyou’s arms.

“But we talked like a minute ago?” Shouyou releases the blanket, and the cat jumps from his arms. Its ears perk up when it sees its owner, and then runs to the building stairs, disappearing around a corner.

“I live downstairs,” he sighs. “I’m sorry about them. Did they cause you a lot of trouble?”

“Yes— no. Urgh.” Shouyou closes his eyes and massages his forehead, his head starting to throb once again.

“Which one is it?” His neighbor’s frown shifts, from pure rage to slight concern.

“Not really. It’s just… if it weren’t for my headache, I wouldn’t have minded it being here.” Shouyou smiles, picking up the blanket that fell when he let the cat go. “It was nice having it as company.” Despite being kind of annoying, he really did like the cat.

“Um, about your headache…” He takes out a little bottle from his jacket pocket and shows the transparent contents to him. “This may help you.”

“Oh?” Shouyou takes the bottle, shaking it curiously. “What is this?”

“It’s… medicine. I made it.” The guy looks everywhere but him, his shoulders tense.

“Really? Woah, are you a witch?” His eyes become gloomy and Shouyou notices his hands balling into fists. Shouyou frowns, his turn to show concern.

“Don’t answer if you don’t want to. I don’t really mind.” The man nods, and Shouyou leaves the subject alone. “I tried everything already, so I guess I won’t lose anything by giving this a chance. Thank you!” Before taking off the lid, a hand stops him.

“Don't drink it _now._ Wait until after eating something, then you can take it. And also don’t go out tonight.” He sounds so serious that Shouyou starts to have doubts about the safety of this medicine.

“Uh, are you sure it’s safe to drink?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” He keeps staring at him with a frown. Scary.

“Okay, then.” Shouyou looks at the bottle with amusement, then at the man in front of him.

“I should be going. Sorry for my cat.” He bows slightly and then he’s gone, just like his cat a few minutes ago.

Closing the door, Shouyou looks at the bottle’s content one more time. He’s sure that nothing could make his headaches hurt any _more_. What’s the worst that could happen? Witches make this kind of thing for a living, after all, and that guy was definitely a witch—or at least magical to some degree.

He leaves the bottle in the kitchen, trying hard to be patient and not take it right away. Half and hour later, after failing to tidy up his place—blaming his unproductivity on his headache more than his inability to clean—he makes a quick meal and drinks the medicine. It tastes like saltwater.

After a while, he actually starts feeling better, but is also growing gradually drowsier. Figuring it’s a side effect of the medicine, Shouyou decides to rest a bit.

As soon as his head hits the pillow, he’s completely asleep.

* * *

_Hin—mph— Shouyou! Wake up!_

Shouyou mumbles incoherently, too tired and comfy to care about the voice.

_Wak—nngh— Open your— Shouyou!_

Sighing, Shouyou turns around on his bed in the direction of the voice, eyes still heavy with sleep. “What do you want?”

_Look!_

With half lidded eyes, Shouyou tries to focus his blurry vision. Under the early sunlight coming from the window, there’s someone kneeling on the floor, struggling with another figure.

“Uh?”

At Shouyou’s noise, a meow echoes across the room. Shouyou stares at the person beside his bed and frowns, confused.

Kyuu’s owner is in his apartment, along with Kyuu. Kyuu is struggling in his arms, mouth covered by the man’s hands.

It takes a second more for Shouyou to realize they shouldn’t be there.

“How the fuck did you get in?!” Shouyou shouts, sitting and moving away from the intruders, throwing the only thing he has near his hands: pillows. The first one hits the man in the face. “Why are you telling me to look?!”

“It wasn’t me!” The guy manages to evade the next pillow, but releases Kyuu by accident.

“ _I was the one calling you_ ,” Kyuu admits, evading its owners hands and hopping onto a shelf.

The pillow in Shouyou’s hand slips from his grip, and his eyes fly open. The cat talked.

“Why can’t you stay quiet?!” Kyuu’s owner hisses, glaring at the cat.

So he heard him to? What is going on? The medicine must have done things to his mind.

“ _Because it’s time for an introduction.”_ Kyuu dodges its owner’s approach and jumps onto the bed, glancing at Shouyou. “ _I’m Kyuu, that guy’s familiar. His name is Kageyama Tobio. And you, Shouyou, are now his temporary familiar, too. I welcome you to our family.”_

What Shouyou does next is probably the best—and most natural—human reaction to a situation like this: he screams.


	2. The man and the cat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shouyou meets his neighbours and Kyuu maker an offer he can refuse.

It's common to learn from a small age that a vast number of different beings exist in the world--from tiny pixies to mysterious sea monsters, from normal humans to outstanding wizards and witches. So of course Shouyou is aware of the existance of familiars, but when one of them breaks into your home with its scary owner and _talks_ , anyone would be terrified and scream bloody murder.

In his defense: what the actual fuck.

As soon as he starts screaming, his neighbor rushes to his side, face maniac as he covers his mouth and shushes Shouyou.

“You’re going to wake up the entire building!” He whispers sharply, kneeling on the bed.

Shouyou’s muffled scream weakens until he’s only trying to breathe under the press of the guy’s hand. With round eyes, he stares at his neighbour--Kageyama, if he believes what the cat said. Up close like this, he looks pretty disheveled-- his hair standing up in odd places, small bags under his eyes, oversized wrinkly clothes. He thought this man was handsome, which he still kinda is, but the ugly frown he’s directing at Shouyou now isn’t doing any good favors to his image.

“ _I think he needs a moment to process the information,”_ Kyuu says. These words remind him he should be concerned about the fact that people have broken into his apartment.

Shouyou shoves away the man’s hand, standing from his bed and rushing to the front door. He tries to turn the knob, but his hand catches on the solid wood of the door; there’s no trace of it anywhere.

“I locked the room because I knew this would happen,” Kageyama sighs.

Shouyou runs in the opposite direction, and presses his face to the window glass. It doesn’t budge. He wishes he knew how to fight a witch.

“Okay, listen. I know this is hard to understand, but-”

“Hard?!” Shouyou turns around and glares at Kageyama, who’s still on his bed. “A talking cat and a weirdo break into my apartment, then the _cat_ that’s been coming over for weeks tells _me_ I’m some kind of… f-familiar?! Also, I’m locked here! I’m sorry if I don’t _understand_ what’s going on here!” He’s breathing hard, puffing big gulps of air out of his mouth.

“Ugh, this is why I told you to not mess around with normal people!” Kageyama shouts at Kyuu, extending an arm trying to grab it. But Kyuu gracefully jumps to one of the pillows scattered around the floor. It tucks its tail around its front paws as it sits down.

“ _Shouyou, first calm down. You’ll pass out at this rate.”_

“You can’t tell me what to do! I’m gonna-” He tries to approach it, but for some reason after a couple of steps, his legs stop moving completely.

“ _Tobio_ , _you don’t have to do that. Not now,”_ Kyuu says calmly. “ _It’s cruel to order around your familiar like that.”_

“If you want him to hit you, suit yourself.” Kageyama, who has his hand turned as if pulling something in Shouyou's direction, shrugs and drops it to his lap.

Shouyou’s legs suddenly give out and a feeling of pins and needles tingles under his skin.

He falls on his butt, eyes widening. “What the fuck?!”

“This is the most reckless thing you've ever done,” Kageyama sighs again, covering his face with his hands.

“ _It’s already done though.”_

“What is already done?! I’m still here, you know!” Shouyou frowns, still rattled by the fall. He doesn’t dare look at the intruders, focusing on massaging his feet to fight the numbness instead.

“ _You’re already Tobio’s familiar. There’s no turning back now.”_

At this, Shouyou lifts his gaze. He can’t turn back from something he didn’t decide on?

“I think that’s completely unfair! And I didn’t even know that humans could be familiars,” he huffs, wiggling his toes then crossing his legs.

Shouyou pinches his thigh to be sure this isn’t some kind of dream. It hurts.

Damn it.

“ _Familiars are usually spirits that make an oath with wizards or witches,_ ” Kyuu explains while walking closer to Shouyou.

Kyuu continues talking, but Shouyou’s mind has wandered elsewhere. So, this is what a spirit looks like; from the way the books described them, he had imagined they were bigger and… more ethereal. He can’t complain though. If these genreless, powerful beings that come from another plane of existence are all cute, he would be fine with seeing another.

Shouyou jolts when Kyuu touches his chest with both paws. They’re standing on their hind legs and looking at him intensely. _“--But a naturally born familiar can choose any other being to be one for a certain period of time.”_

The place where their right paw is, where his heart beats, starts to glow. Shouyou’s eyes grow big at the sparkly orange string-like light that leaves his chest. It connects with Kyuu’s chest, and, from there, a similar blue thread flows towards Kageyama’s.

The room is lightened now by the strange, glowing wires that join the three of them together.

Kyuu crawls down and steps back.

“ _We are connected now. Tobio tried to cut the string, but I managed to wake you up before he could.”_

The light dims until it disappears completely, leaving Shouyou with a tingling sensation on his skin. He rubs the spot where the string was, frowning slightly.

“You’re a little shit,” Kageyama mumbles as Kyuu makes their way to him. They hop to his lap and curl up in a ball on his legs.

Kageyama raises his hand to Kyuu’s head, as though reaching to pet them, but stops himself midair. His arm drops back to his side, lifeless.

Shouyou smiles to himself at the scene, but it quickly falls as another question appears in his head.

“Alright… but why would you do that? We don’t even know each other.”

“For some reason,” Kageyama starts to explain, picking up Kyuu and moving them to his side, “you have stored a lot of magical energy in your body. And it couldn’t go on without using it, so it manifested through headaches. Kyuu sensed your magic and thought it would be a good idea to link us so that your energy flows to me instead.” Kageyama frowns at Shouyou, as if this was his fault.

“Oh…” Shouyou evades his gaze and looks to the floor, thinking.

So Kyuu didn’t cause the headaches. They were trying to help him with this magic storing problem… an actual warning probably would have prevented this misunderstanding. But this means that Shouyou can actually store magic energy…

A strange feeling of hopefulness and indignation compels him to flick his gaze up and meet Kageyama’s. “Wait, then you’re like sucking my magic?! What if I want to use it?”

“ _Tobio will teach you,”_ Kyuu simply says, a smug expression on their face. “ _Once you learn how to use it, the bond will break.”_

Shouyou huffs. “Not to be ungrateful or whatever, but I would prefer to be a wizard more than a witch.”

At this, the witch’s eyes twitch, glare gaining intensity by the second.

“I’ve been saving to apply to somewhere where I can learn from a master. So I don’t see why I should trust you, if I can wait a little longer and be taught by a real wizard.” He adds, trying to remain calm under the intense gaze.

“You’re underestimating me.” Kageyama stands from the bed and looks down on him. “Do you want a demonstration?” He smirks, crossing his arms.

Shouyou nearly flinches. Kageyama, smiling? Now that’s a new level of frightening.

To not look so small, Shouyou stands too, glaring at him even if a little shaken. “Yeah, let’s see how good you are as a wizard.”

Kageyama’s smirk turns into a wicked smile. Kyuu hops down to his side, walking around him for a moment before standing still.

Kageyama snaps his fingers and the entire room turns to sand,his feet sinking slightly into the now sandy ground. The walls and furniture keep their form for a few seconds before crumbling down, forming piles of different sizes. The ceiling crumbles over them too, and Shouyou gasps at the unexpected scenery.

Sandy hills are the only things that surround them in every direction. In the sky, the sun barely touches the horizon.

Kyuu says something, but Shouyou isn’t paying attention--his gaze is fixed on Kageyama rising into the air. Out of the corner of his eye, Kyuu’s figure disappears into nothingness

When Kageyama is a good few meters above him, he lifts his arms and snaps his fingers again. As if he’s fast-forwarding a movie, the sun moves quickly across the sky and white and fluffy clouds soon cover it. Animals pass by them in a flash, flickering out of the scene as soon as they appear within it.

Another snap. Everything surrounding them stops; there’s specks of sand being lifted by wind, and a couple of birds with their wings stretched mid-flight.

It’s evening by now, if the position of the sun means anything.

“What do you think?” Kageyama asks. The sound of his voice cuts through the daunting silence like a bomb.

“You’re-- fine,” Shouyou stutters, barely able to think straight. He doesn’t know if he should be amazed or scared.

It seems that that wasn’t the answer Kageyama was looking for though--his smirk falters, deepening into a frown.

He extends his arms and turns his hands into fists. The ground shakes as patches of green appear here and there. Then small seedlings begin to sprout, growing quickly and becoming various shrubs and trees. Buds and grasses take over the sand, developing into proper flowers of different kinds.

A rumble follows after and Shouyou looks behind him. Dark clouds approach at an alarming rate, consuming the white ones from before. A heavy rain starts falling, soaking both of them to the bone.

Shouyou wipes his eyes and embraces himself, shaking violently as a strong wind seeps into his bones. This isn’t fun anymore. He opens his mouth to speak, to admit that Kageyama’s a good wizard or whatever, but before words can leave him, Kageyama gestures to the sky and a bolt of lightning lands on his open palm. His entire being starts to buzz with electricity, hair strands standing everywhere and eyes glowing blue. He points to a tree and a bolt of electricity leaves his finger. The tree splits in half, directly down the center.

“Alright! Stop it!” Shouyou shouts, trying to be heard over the noise of the rain and wind. “I believe you!”

Kageyama lowers himself until he’s on the ground again. The rain stops. “What do you believe?”

“That you’re a great wizard, alright! Can we go back now?” Shouyou pleads, still shaking.

Kageyama stares at him silently for a few seconds. Without another word, he snaps his fingers. The entire scenery disappears, leaving Shouyou alone in the darkness.

He feels the pull of gravity and can’t stop himself from screaming as a hollow sensation fills his stomach. He’s plummeting down so fast he can hardly breathe. His hair whips mercilessly in the wind, stinging his face as the strands lash against his cheekbones. His hands flail wildly through the air, grasping for purchase. They find nothing.

A bright light appears among the darkness, getting closer and closer.

Is this how he dies? He should have been kinder to the witch, a better brother, too, a nicer friend…

He collides loudly against a hard surface, body feeling numb after falling for who knows how long. Something lands with a _thump_ near him and he soon hears footsteps walking away.

Looking up slowly, Shouyou notices he’s back in his room. Kyuu is staring at him with worried eyes from the bed. Kageyama is standing by the door, back facing Shouyou.

He tries to stand, but his body is still shaken by the near-death experience. Rolling over to glare at the wizard, he feels his wet clothes sticking to his skin, hair dripping small droplets against the floor.

“That was uncalled for!”

“I don’t care.” Kageyama shrugs, and with a movement of his hand, the door knob appears. “I’ll leave the rest to Kyuu. Goodbye.” And so, he’s gone, the only sign left of him the small puddles of water from his footsteps.

Shouyou looks at the door for a complete minute, dumbfounded.

Kyuu hops down from the bed and laughs--or Shouyou supposes he laughs by the sound, but it’s hard to tell from his face. “ _I’ll guess he gave you quite the show. Don’t think too badly of him, please, he’s just frustrated,”_ they say, sitting in front of him.

“But he was so mean!” Hinata lays on his side, dazed by everything he experienced in the past few minutes. “It’s not like I had a say in this either!”

“ _I understand that._ ” The cat looks at the closed door. _“He thinks I did this to help you, so I apologize for his behavior. It was my own selfish decision to tweak fate, even if only slightly, so you two could meet.”_

“Help me?” Shouyou sits up and immediately goes dizzy. He closes his eyes and wills the feeling to disappear. “You could have slipped a note below my door or given me a signal about what was happening, instead of linking us together. I’m not sure I’ll get anything out of this.”

“ _I have to confess. I meant selfish not because I want to specifically help you_.” The bell tingles move and when Shouyou opens his eyes, Kyuu is laying on top of a pillow. “ _I want you to help Tobio. If you can crack even a small part of the walls he built around himself, I know you’ll get the help you seek_.”

Shouyou furrows his brow. “You guys don’t know anything about me. I doubt that--”

“ _The thing is, Shouyou, I know_ ,” Kyuu interrupts him, “ _I know that only someone who hasn’t been properly trained stores that much magic. You probably started producing energy after trying a few spells and never used it again, so all this time you have been filling your body with it, making it adjust by itself. I’m surprised you’ve lasted this long without greater consequences.”_ Their eyes are half lidded and a weird, cocky smile appears on their face. “ _Tobio is a very talented magician. I’m sure he can teach you useful things, and along the way you can help him open up to the world again, get to know more people, finish grieving..._ ” Shouyou notices a hint of sadness in their voice and swallows his question, deciding to leave it for another time.

He looks at the floor, slightly frowning in thought. It sounds like a once--in-a-lifetime kind of opportunity. Kyuu said Kageyama is a _magician_ , meaning he’s good not only in witchery, but also wizardry, which is just as incredible as it is annoying. Still, even if he wanted to learn more about magic from him, Kageyama was pissed about this whole deal, there’s no way he was going to really try to be helpful. That makes him wonder...

“There isn’t any other way to release my magical energy and help him at the same time? I don’t know if this will work out as you plan.”

“ _I don’t know if I should tell you.”_ Kyuu yawns and stretches. “ _You could perfectly run away if there’s any reason for you to stay.”_

 _They kinda have a point_ , Shouyou thinks, puckering his lips.

Both stay in silence, just looking at each other.

“ _I know it’s hard to take this all in,”_ Kyuu says. “ _But Tobio is a good person. And I know you’ll get something out of this situation.”_ At this, they seem to smile, and Shouyou wishes he knew what Kyuu was thinking.

“If you say so. I still work almost everyday, so I don’t know if I can be of much help...” Shouyou leans back, supporting himself with his arms.

“ _You will. Trust me_.”

Shouyou only hums in response. Kyuu is putting too much faith in him.

“ _Alright_.” Kyuu stands and walks away. “ _You should go back to sleep. I’ll ask Tobio to teach you the basics later today_.” After they look back at him one last time, they enter the bathroom.

The sound of the bell stops suddenly, and the apartment is left in complete silence.

Shouyou lets himself yawn openly.

The sun is out by now, its light going through the windows and raising the temperature in the room.

He has the day off and is migraine free, so he _could_ catch up with sleep as Kyuu suggested, but giving a quick glance around his apartment--there’s a pile of crumpled clothes and uniforms in a basket, along with an overflowing trash can in the kitchen-- the brief thought of doing some chores crosses his mind. Sleeping still sounds more appealing…

After changing his damp clothes and drying his hair, he plops onto his bed and, hugging one of the pillows he picked from the floor, closes his eyes.

* * *

The sun is setting when Shouyou receives a message from an unknown number. The text clarifies that the sender is Kageyama, along with what sounds more like an order to go to his apartment than asking if he actually wants to go. Regardless, Shouyou is excited. Whatever he teaches him--if it involves _magic_ \--will be awesome.

He doesn’t stop smiling as he makes his way down two floors, head full of images of himself doing teleportation, weather modification, and levitation.

Before he reaches the apartment’s door, he sees it open a crack. A disembodied voice from behind it tells him to come in and not touch anything.

Stepping in slowly, he excuses the intrusion despite not seeing anyone inside, and immediately the door closes behind him on its own. The voice, who must be Kageyama, then tells him to wait there. He’s left in silence and awkwardly stands at the entrance.

The door to the bedroom is closed, but he imagines the place must be identical to his own if the position of the kitchen and bathroom door are any indication. The difference obviously falls on how _packed_ it is. Big boxes pile on top of each other by the walls, some kind of fabric is poking out from below the cupboard half open doors, a shelf is squeezed between the kitchen counter and fridge stores different kinds of bottles, recipients, and other trinkets that Shouyou has never seen before.

The bedroom door is suddenly opened, startling him. A small rubber ball flies towards him and hits his head before he can react. Kageyama appears after.

“I’m busy, so you’ll work with that ball,” he says curtly, then goes inside the room and the door closes.

Shouyou stares dumbfoundead. “What am I supposed to do with this?!” He frowns, picking up the ball.

“I don’t know! Make it float or something!” Kageyama yells from the other room. “That should be easy enough, even for you!”

“That jerk!” Shouyou fumes and kicks off his shoes.

He knocks on Kageyama’s door, but no matter how hard he pounds, Kageyama doesn’t answer. He really wants to hit this guy. Also, where is Kyuu?!

“Fine! Whatever! I’ll show you how good I am at making this stupid ball float!” He plops on the floor by the door and leaves the ball in front of him.

What does he remember from that book he read that one time? More than the words, he remembers what he did.

Leaning closer, he focuses on the action he wants the ball to do as he gestures with his hand. The ball sprints to the ceiling, bounces back towards his surprised face, and finishes on the shelf beside him, toppling over a couple of bottles. Yep. That happened last time too.

Before he can stand, Kageyama storms out of his room and shoves him aside. “What are you doing, dumbass?!”

Shouyou crushes against one of the piles of boxes, and despite leaning to one side, thankfully doesn’t crumble down. “I was doing what you told me to!”

“You can’t just-- You have to--” Kageyama stutters while arranging the mess of bottles and containers.

“You didn’t even give me instructions or a demonstration!”

When Kageyama finishes putting everything back in place, he glares at Shouyou. “Give me your hand.”

Confused, Shouyou stands raising an eyebrow but complies.

Kageyama leaves Shouyou’s palm up and extends his own hand over it, leaving a few centimeters of distance. Right above Shouyou’s hand, a glowing dust gathers, increasing in size until it touches Kageyama’s and he grabs it, disappearing.

“There. I took a portion of your energy. You won’t have headaches for a while. Now leave.” Without a second glance, he stomps back to the other room.

“Hold on!” Shouyou follows after him, stopping the door before it can close. “You can’t just steal my magic. I want it back!”

“I can’t give it back. It only works in one direction.”

Shouyou sees Kageyama sit in a chair, facing a pot on a table covered with bottles, small pouches, dried plants and thread. He starts filling the bottles with liquid, mumbling something under his breath.

Fine. If he wants to do this the hard way...

Shouyou focuses in the pot and gestures for it to raise, moving his hand in the desired direction. There’s a strange tingling in his fingers, and as the pot shakily raises, his arm starts feeling heavier. Surprised but pleased, Shouyou smiles and moves it to the ceiling, away from Kageyama’s reach.

“Put. It. Down,” Kageyama growls, standing up.

“I don’t know how to, so you’ll have to teach me.” Shouyou smirks.

They glare at each other, Shouyou’s arm held high, trembling.

The pot starts to tilt.

Kageyama sighs and, with a pointed look, tells him to relax.

It’s easier said than done, because the way Kageyama is looking at him, not mad but serious enough to be intimidating, makes him lose some courage .

Breathing deeply, Shouyou looks back at the pot, trying to forget how scary he can be, lets his shoulders and muscles relax. Suddenly, Kageyama touches his arm, startling him and making the pot drop a meter or so in the air, spilling some of its content.

“Don’t--!” He raises his voice, but then stops himself. “Don’t look at me, just think about what you’re doing.”

Shouyou does as he’s told and returns his focus to the pot,a bit nervous. With a little push, Kageyama lowers his arm until the pot is on the table again.

“Now release it.”

“Do I just like… think that?” Shouyou tries but as he moves his hand the pot follows it.

“I guess…?” Kageyama says, genuinely confused.

“What? You guess?!”

“I do it and it works! I’ve never really thought about it.” He crosses his arms and looks back at the table, frowning in thought.

“You suck at teaching...”

Shouyou tries to think about anything he has seen working and remembers Kageyama snapping his fingers the previous day. With nothing to lose, Shouyou goes for it--he imagines himself leaving the pot on the table as he snaps his fingers.

The pot rises and, with a _thump,_ falls on the table. Shouyou moves his hand slowly, but this time it stays in its position. A big smile grows on his face.

“Hey! I did it! The last time I tried this on my own the glass flew across the room and shattered.”

Kageyama doesn’t look as amused as he is though. “Look, if you’re going to stay here, we need to establish a few rules.”

Shouyou frowns slightly, but Kageyama continues.

“One, never touch my things in _any way_.” Kageyama glares at him, articulating each word as he turns. “Two, stay quiet. And three, stay a reasonable distance away from me.”

He gives him a last look before seating by the table again.

“Also, you should clean what you spilled over there.”

Shouyou scowls at Kageyama, hating each one of those rules. That’s like not being here at all! Kageyama wants him to act as if he were invisible… which is an interesting thought.

Shouyou picks a stained rag from the kitchen sink and hurries back to the room.

“Can you make people invisible?” He asks, trying to sound casual as he cleans the liquid.

Kageyama fills one of his empty bottles and seals it with a plastic lid. He grunts, “Probably.”

“Can these do it?” Shouyou approaches his table and tries to take a better glimpse of the bottles, but a hand stops him before he can touch them.

“What did I _just_ say?” Kageyama shoves aside Shouyou’s arm, then moves everything over the table, away from Shouyou’s reach.

“Okay, okay.” Shouyou rolls his eyes.

While Kageyama works, Shouyou takes some time to poke around.

He thought this was a bedroom, but there’s no bed in here. It looks more like a workstation. Just like the kitchen area, there’s a lot of things to see. One of the walls is covered by shelves--some with drawers of different sizes and others storing colorful bottles, wooden and cardboard containers, and several plants he doesn’t know the name of. Each one seems to have a label, but he has no clue what the drawings on them mean.

At the side of the door that leads to the kitchen area, there’s an old chest of drawers, which has three crystal spheres atop over a wooden stand; upon further inspection he sees a faint bluish glow inside of them. Beside the table Kageyama is working on, there are different pots hanging from the roof, some have flowers and others barely a steam. Open boxes, like the ones in the kitchen, are piled near the door, inside of them, bags of dried fruits and nuts call Shouyou’s attention, but he doesn't think it's time to ask if Kageyama really enjoys eating those or somehow uses them for his witch work.

The only difference this room has with his own is the window. Instead of the big windows leading to the balcony, this one is half of their size and it’s near the ceiling. He can see the night sky on the other side.

He doesn’t see a trace of Kyuu and wonders if they must be messing with another one of their neighbors.

Glancing back to Kageyama, it seems he’s finished filling the bottles and is now braiding the thread. He’s… good, Shouyou supposes, though he doesn’t know if any of this is the right way to do it. He works fast, at least.

“You’re staring,” Kageyama comments, sounding pissed.

“What? I can’t do that either?” Shouyou frowns, ready to start squabbling again. “We’ve barely talked since I got here and I want to know what’s up with all of these.” He gestures to everything in the room, trying to make a point. “I’ve never seen a witch working from this close up before… Sorry, wizard.” He corrects himself. He doesn’t want to repeat what happened that morning. “I just think it’s cool.”

Hands stilling, Kageyama’s brow furrows in a contemplative way and his lips form a little pout.

“This is just medicine, like the one I gave you yesterday,” he says, pointing at the bottles. “These are charms, with different properties. And all this room is just like a storage room where I can do these kinds of things.” He balls his hands. “This is literally what I do for a living. It’s not fancy or _cool_ , but enough for me. Happy?” The way he looks is almost hurt, like if only sharing that information made him uncomfortable. Is being a witch that bad?

“Are you one of those guys that stand in alleys using a trench coat to cover their illegal business? That’s kind of shady,” Shouyou narrows his eyes and smiles, cocky.

“What? No! My stuff actually works. Always. And I don’t go into alleys.” Kageyama looks like he’s going to hit him if he continues.

“I was joking! Don’t need to be angry. Geez.” Shouyou crosses his arms. “You’re lucky your personality doesn’t match your appearance,” he mumbles.

“Idiot,” Kageyama says before returning to his threads.

They won’t get far if they continue like this.

“Fine I’m sorry, okay? I’m not that happy either to be stuck with you either, but Kyuu said this’d be good for both of us, so let’s try to get along.” Shouyou sighs but then smiles genuinely. Kageyama looks at him again. “Let’s reintroduce ourselves. I’m Hinata Shouyou. Nice to meet you.”

“You already know my name, but fine. I’m Kageyama…” His frown loses strength and Shouyou accepts it as progress.

“So, Kageyama. If I help you with your work, will you teach me something else?” Shouyou steps closer, hands behind him to stop himself from touching anything.

Kageyama continues braiding and says “I don’t think you can help me with this right now...” Before Shouyou can complain, he adds, “but maybe you could make something for dinner. Kyuu will be back soon and they always complain when it’s not ready.”

Shouyou considers the offer. It’s true he doesn’t know anything about potions and charms, so he could at least try to make something to eat.

“I’ll try, but don’t expect anything fancy.” Shouyou shrugs and stands.

He’s getting to the kitchen when Kageyama tells him, “Don’t touch anything you haven’t seen before though!”

Shouyou hesitates, looking between the fridge and cupboard. Half of him doesn’t want to expose himself to whatever Kageyama has in there, he doesn’t want to get hexed or cursed, but he doesn’t want to stand around doing nothing. He reasures himself--he’s not stupid enough to confuse a magical ingredient with a normal one.

As he stares at two different bags of what looks like rice wondering if they’re the normal kind, he feels Kageyama’s eyes on him.

He has to admit he barely knows a thing about magic and Kageyama obviously knows a _lot_ \--he’s a witch _and_ a wizard after all--so he has to take this chance. He has to help, even if he doesn’t know how exactly, and he’ll get help in return. Give and receive. That’s basically how the world works.

“Idiot! That’s obviously not rice!” Kageyama yells and rushes to snatch one of the bags from his hand.

He wonders how much he’ll have to give to receive something in return.


	3. Troubles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shouyou realizes there's lots of things he needs to find out about this world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized i suck at schedules so I'll update whenever i'm able, sorry.  
> This chapter contains graphic descriptions of violence (from "a blast calls his attention in the quiet night" to "'Idiot. Run. Now.' Kageyama stands up"), so be careful if that bothers you.  
> Thanks to [anna](https://twitter.com/rinpanna) (rinpanna on twitter) for betaing!  
> Edit: I added [moonbieee's](https://twitter.com/moonbieee) piece!! Please search their art on twitter, it's so cool!!

Shouyou smiles as a group of teens leave the family restaurant, thanking them for coming in. 

He looks at the time on his wrist watch and is relieved to see the rush hour is coming to an end. The influx of people coming in and leaving always tires him out, especially if some of them complain after he tells them that they have to wait. Besides, it means he’ll have a lunch break soon, and he’s starving already. 

A couple comes in and Shouyou immediately forgets everything about lunch, putting on his best smile. He takes them to a free table and, while giving them each a menu, tells them a server will soon be with them. Going back to the entrance, he sees his manager in his spot.

“I can take it from here, Hinata.” Sugawara tells him, smiling at the family that approaches them. “You can go have lunch.” 

Thanking him, Shouyou walks to the back room, looking forward to eating lunch. He usually buys food from a nearby convenience store, but since he started training with Kageyama a few weeks ago, every other day of the week he has been bringing the leftovers of their dinner.

The unspoken agreement started the day Kageyama first asked him to make dinner for all of them. Shouyou isn’t good at measuring ingredient portions, so he made more than the three of them could eat--including Kyuu, who surprisingly is able to eat human food. He had asked Kageyama if he could take home the leftovers for lunch the next day, and, after Kageyama just shrugged and nodded, Shouyou said he was happy he could have a homemade meal the next day. 

His passing comment had struck Kyuu it seems, because the next couple of times he was told to come to Kageyama’s place for practice, Kyuu made sure to nag Kageyama to make extra food for Shouyou to take home. Even if he grumbled and complained, he still did it, making Shouyou wonder the extent of Kyuu’s influence on him. They’re so patient too, stepping in when quarrels get out of hand or explaining more carefully what Kageyama couldn’t. 

He’s really grateful for the kindness they have shown him in the last week.

Shouyou sits and starts eating happily as he browses on his phone. He sees one of his friends posting a photo of a bakery he often goes to and thinks maybe he should buy something for Kyuu and Kageyama on his way back home as a thank you gift. Even if he doesn’t want to admit it out loud, Kageyama is a really good magician, also a good cook, if it weren’t for his mean face and harsh words, he could be the perfect boyfriend…

_“Shouyou.”_

He jumps from the chair, dropping his phone on the table as a black furry figure hops on it. It sits and stares at him with big blue eyes. 

It’s Kyuu.

“Please, stop appearing out of nowhere,” he says, putting a hand on his chest. 

_“I’m sorry for startling you, are you busy right now?”_ Kyuu looks at this bento box.

“Well, I’m on lunch break, so not really…” Shouyou raises an eyebrow, sitting back again. “I don’t know if you should be here, though. Anyone can come in.”

 _“I wouldn’t worry about that; I secured the room.”_ They lay down, getting comfortable.

“That better not cause me any troubles.” Shouyou stares at the door. The doorknob is still there. 

_“Really, don’t worry, if someone wants to come in, they will have the need to do something else first.”_ Kyuu licks their paw and brushes their head. _“This won’t take long anyway.”_

That doesn’t reassure Shouyou at all.

“What’s up?”

_“Would you be able to go shopping with Tobio later?”_

Shouyou frowns. Shopping? He already told them he works full time. Trying to fit his schedule so he can go practice with Kageyama is already hard enough.

As if they knew what he was thinking, Kyuu snorts. _“I remember you have a job. Don’t worry. This store only appears at night in this area. Tobio has to buy a couple of things for a new job he received.”_

Shouyou wanted to practice his new magical abilities on his own before going to sleep, but it must be an interesting place if it has things that Kageyama needs.

 _“I would go, but I’m not feeling well these days, and I need someone to keep an eye on Tobio.”_

“Are you okay? I didn’t know familiars could get sick.” Shouyou furrows his brow. Can spirits even contract viruses? 

“ _I think I just need to rest. You don’t have to worry about that._ ” They shake their head. _“What I need to know if you can go with Tobio. It’ll be quick, I promise.”_ Kyuu’s expression softens, their eyes becoming bigger and more adorable. Is this how they get Kageyama to do whatever they want?

“Ugh, fine. My shift ends at 7.” Shouyou huffs, crossing his arms. 

_“Excellent. I’ll let Tobio know.”_ Kyuu stands up and jumps down the table.

“Tell him I at least want dinner first!” 

The door to the room opens and Yachi, one of his coworkers, stops midstep. 

“Oh, who should I tell that to?” She tilts her head in confusion.

Shouyou freaks out when she speaks. That damn cat.

“It’s-- I was…” He fumbles with his phone, putting it to his ear. “I’ll call you later! Bye!” He then presses the screen as if he’s hanging up, smiling nervously. “Someone asked me for a favor and I was talking to them.” 

He breathes, relieved, when Yachi nods and starts talking about other things while setting up her lunch. He hasn’t told anyone yet of the strange deal he has with Kageyama and Kyuu, and it would be hard to explain if he wanted to. 

The rest of the day is as uneventful as ever. By the time he’s leaving, he notices Kageyama texted him a couple of hours ago the place where he’ll be waiting, adding to not take too long to get there.

With a huff, Shouyou replies he’s on his way. 

He’s surprised when he notices that Kageyama told him to meet outside the shopping district. Could the mysterious shop be in a place so crowded? Maybe they’ll go to another place after--or maybe a crowded street is the best place to hide something in plain sight. 

He reaches the entrance to the wide boulevard and notices that Kageyama isn’t there. He looks around, but doesn’t spot him. Shouyou takes out his phone to see if Kageyama wrote something to him while he was on the train. 

No messages.

He stares at his screen frowning, starting to write a text saying he’s in the meeting place already. 

As soon as he pesses send, a notification bell sounds beside him. 

“I’m already here,” Kageyama’s voice says.

Shouyou jumps in place, gripping his phone. “Would you guys stop doing that?” he breathes out, gritting his teeth and turning around. “You’ll kill me of a heart attack someday.”

“I’m not that lucky.” Kageyama rolls his eyes and puts his phone in his pocket. “Let’s go.”

He starts walking without waiting for him, which immediately has Shouyou fuming. He didn’t even say hello or try to explain where they’re going. 

“What are you waiting for?” Kageyama asks, looking behind him but not stopping. 

Shouyou frowns harder, but quickly follows after him. “Hello to you, too, by the way.”

Kageyama grunts. 

“Can you at least tell me where we’re going? I’m hungry, you know, I just finished working.” Shouyou puts his hands in his pockets and looks at him. 

“I thought Kyuu told you where I’m going today.” 

“They only said you were going to a shop that only appears at night.” He hates that Kageyama treats him like he’s stupid.

They stop in front of a ramen restaurant. “Here it is,” Kageyama tells him as he goes in.

“What?” Shouyou looks at the shop for a moment. It looks like any other ramen restaurant in the city. 

Kageyama sits at the counter tables and a man with a buzz cut immediately approaches him.

“Kageyama! Long time no see. How are you?” 

Shouyou sits beside him, surprised that the chef recognizes him. 

“Oh? You didn’t bring Kyuu along, but a real person this time!” The man laughs.

“Shut up, Tanaka.” Shouyou isn’t sure, but Kageyama’s cheeks look a bit redder than they did a second ago. “Will you take our orders or will you stand there all day making fun of me?” 

“Alright, alright. I guess you’ll want your usual.” Kageyama nods. “And you?” He looks at Shouyou.

Shouyou stares at the variety of ramen pictures on the walls. He doesn’t want to take advantage of his neighbour, doesn’t matter how mean he is, so he chooses a simple ramen with roasted pork, scallions and egg, also a beer to drink, because why the hell not. 

Tanaka nods and begins preparing the food. 

Shouyou looks around the restaurant once again, hoping to find anything magical about the place. There’s a few tables behind them, half of them occupied by people eating in groups. The walls have images of the different plates and drinks they offer. In the kitchen, another person besides the one Kageyama called Tanaka, works on preparing the plates; neither of them looks like they’re using magic. Everything is completely normal.

“I didn’t think you would invite me to eat at all!” Shouyou says delighted when Tanaka gives him a mug of beer and leaves a glass with water for Kageyama. “I’m starving, but I still want to know where the shop you want to go is.”

“You have to wait. It’s not the time yet.” Kageyama is on his phone now, typing something. 

Shouyou takes a sip of his drink. “Mhm, and you need something for your witch job?” Even if Kageyama doesn’t want to talk, Shouyou wants to know more. 

“Yeah. I got a request, but I don’t have all the ingredients at home.” 

Tanaka leaves a bowl of steaming ramen in front of each of them, telling them to enjoy it with a big grin. 

Shouyou quickly takes the chopsticks and begins eating happily. It tastes amazing. After a few minutes of silence though, he glances at Kageyama, not finished with his questions just yet. 

“And where do you sell your stuff? All the witches I’ve seen have shops.” Shouyou notices Kageyama falter for a moment.

“I sell them online,” he grumbles.

Shouyou snorts. “I’m surprised people buy from you.” Kageyama sends him a side glare. “No offense! But I don’t think I would trust a witch selling stuff online. It’s, like, the perfect place to get scammed.” 

“For your information, I have really good reviews.” Kageyama says proudly, the ghost of a smile on his face, which makes Shouyou laugh out loud. 

Kageyama punches Shouyou in the ribs with his elbow, but he doesn’t stop laughing.

“Sorry, sorry! I just think it’s funny. I want to check it out then!” He takes out his phone, but Kageyama goes back to his usual frowny self.

“No. You just laughed at me.” 

“Aww, don’t be like that. I’m sorry, okay?” Kageyama just stares at his food and continues eating. He must be pretty offended. “Hey, I’m really sorry. It’s just that I’ve never seen an e-shop for witching goods. I’m sure you must be good, or we wouldn’t be waiting for a mysterious shop in the first place.”

Kageyama’s frown softens, but doesn’t say anything else. Shouyou decides to not push his luck anymore with jokes, for now. 

Between bits, Shouyou tries to make Kageyama talk about something, anything, and manages to gather a bit of information about him. 

He started working as a witch over three years ago, before he moved to this city. He didn’t have the experience to open a proper shop, or start working under another witch, so he decided to start a business online. Over time, the word spread about him and people started to ask if he would take personal requests, which he decided to do under certain conditions. He says that the pay isn’t always good, but for now he has enough to live on his own with Kyuu. 

“That’s so cool! If it weren’t for the fact that I take as many shifts as I can get my hands on, I wouldn’t have enough to stay here.” Shouyou finishes his drink and takes one of the takoyaki he asked for earlier. “It must feel great to be your own boss.”

Kageyama ponders for a minute before saying “It has its ups and downs, I guess.”

“And why did you decide to be a full time witch if you’re also good at wizardry?” Shouyou thinks back at all the skills he has shown him; even if he sucks at teaching, he clearly knows what he’s doing. 

“I don’t like talking about that.” Kageyama averts his gaze, clenching his hands into fists. 

Shouyou recalls him doing something like this after he called him a witch when they met. It must be a delicate topic. He decides to stop calling him that if he wants to stay on his good side. 

“Don’t worry. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.” 

“I think it’s time to move.” Kageyama takes a peek at his phone and signals to Tanaka, who immediately comes with the bill. 

“You should hurry if you want to catch the door. It’ll show up in a minute or two,” he tells them.

Kageyama quickly pays while Tanaka insists on them visiting again, then they say their good-byes and make their way to the alley beside the shop.

“Where are we going now? Is the door Tanaka-san mentioned important?” Shouyou asks, but before Kageyama manages to say something, the sound of a bell echoes through the alley.

Shouyou looks around for the source, but he only sees trash cans, trash bags, and some cardboards. Then, in the middle of the way, a brown shape starts taking form, as if fog cleared, and the details on it leave little doubt about what it is. A wooden door.

It’s standing on its own, without frame or support, and a handwritten sign over it turns on its own from ‘we’re closed’ to ‘welcome!’. 

Kageyama approaches it and knocks two times then turns the knob three times to the left. A click sounds from the other side. He turns the knob to the right this time and the door opens, showing them a staircase going down. 

“Behave yourself in there.” Kageyama tells him before getting in.

Shouyou sticks his tongue out despite Kageyama’s back being turned to him. Obviously he’ll behave! He always acts nicely if the other person is nice. Maybe Kageyama should be nice if he wants him to be nice back. 

The stairs lead to another door, but they don’t have to knock this time, as it opens before they reach it. A pretty girl with silky black hair in a long black dress, greets them. 

“Welcome back, Kageyama-san. Who is with you this time?” She talks cautiously, looking with narrow eyes at Shouyou. While she spoke, a white pigeon with a black peacock feathered tail flew to one of her shoulders, turning its head to look at them with one eye. 

“He’s my… familiar. Kyuu did some stuff and I’m stuck with him.” Kageyama looks back at him too. 

“Nice you meet you!” Shouyou yells without meaning too, giving a step in front of his companion and bowing slightly. “I’m Hinata Shouyou.”

“Hm, you have a pretty string… I can say that Kyuu-sama did an excellent job with that spell.” She smiles and steps to the side. The pigeon coos. “Welcome to my atelier. You can call me Shimizu.”

Shouyou stares in wonder at the huge room they step into. He can’t believe she considers this place an atelier; the first floor is probably triple the size of his and Kageyama’s rooms combined, and there’s even a second floor that must be at least half the size of the first. This looks more like a supermarket than just a shop, as lines of shelves decor the room from wall to wall and a couple of counters at the back offer potions.

“Close your mouth, dumbass.” Kageyama brushes past him, following Shimizu to a staircase. The pigeon flies ahead of them, landing on the handrail of the second floor.

Shouyou stares at them for a second. “I wanna walk around for a bit!” he yells, but doesn’t wait for acknowledgement.

Approaching the closest round of shelves, he sees big couldurons of different sizes filled to the brim with herbs, plants, flowers, and seeds. His nose is overwhelmed by the intense aroma that comes from each one of them; some he can recognize as lavender, chamomile, maybe mint, but the majority are completely new to him. At the end of the corridor, several pots decor a wall with a variety of plants. 

He continues walking to the next corridor and sees baskets with a wide selection of stones and gems of different sizes and shapes, also smaller couldurons with what looks like dust of the same color and glow of the gems. A puffing sound catches his attention, the source being several steaming clay pots, which are stirred by wooden spoons on its own. At the side of each one, a couple of small bottles containing the same liquid as the pot are displayed along with the name of the potion. Shouyou doesn’t recognize any, so he continues walking and finds a display with the same crystal spheres Kageyama has in his storage room. These, though, glow in a variety of colors and intensity, and not one is exactly the same as another. A sign on the display says ‘fragile’ so Shouyou carefully picks one up to take a better look. 

“The sign says fragile,” Kageyama’s voice startles him once again.

“I know!” He shouts, putting the sphere on its place and stepping back. “I wanted to know if they’re the same as the ones you have back home.”

Kageyama looks at the spheres. “Yeah, but these aren’t connected to any place.”

“So they show you different places?” Shouyou asks, noticing Kageyama is holding two big paper bags in his arms. 

“They take you to a predetermined place if you cast a spell on them.” Kageyama turns to the staircase again. “Help me carry some boxes.”

“Where do yours take you?” Shouyou follows after him, sad to not have more time to look around. 

“I don’t know. They were… a gift.” Kageyama makes the same constipated expression he does when being called a witch.

“Oi, Kageyama!” Someone calls, and Tanaka can be seen walking towards them. 

They stop and wait for him to come closer.

“For the tenth time, I won’t ever flirt--” Kageyama starts telling him annoyed, but the worry in the other man’s eyes makes him falter. 

“It wasn’t about that, but if--” Tanaka shakes his head. “Doesn’t matter. There were a couple of shady guys asking for you in the restaurant. I told them you’re just a regular and sent them away, but they’re nosing around the block.” 

“What were they like?” Kageyama’s eyes narrow and frown deepens. 

“They tried to keep it casual, didn’t stand out either. If it weren’t because one of them mentioned the old man, then I wouldn’t have become suspicious,” Tanaka says. 

At this, Kageyama’s eyes widen. “They asked about my grandpa?” 

“Not exactly. I guess I wasn’t supposed to hear it, because they were mumbling with each other, but I’m certain I caught them saying you were his grandson or something along those lines.” Tanaka gazes between Kageyama and Shouyou, and rubs his chin. “If you’re in any kind of trouble, rest assured that Kiyoko and I will support you.”

Kageyama stays silent, eyes fixed on the floor. Shouyou looks at Kageyama, asking himself why would Tanaka think he’s in trouble or why Kageyama is so disturbed about these people knowing his grandfather.

Suddenly, what Kageyama is holding is thrown on Shouyou’s arms and he says, “Hold this and follow me.” Then he turns to Tanaka, “I’ll need to ask for a favor.”

Shouyou holds both bags over his chest as he follows the two men to the second floor. He barely registers the big work station Shimizu is sitting at or the pigeon landing on Tanaka’s head, mind whirring with questions about what is happening. Kageyama whispers something to her, then Tanaka seems to say something more and she finally nods, determined.

Shouyou stands on the side, curious but not sure if he should try to pry or intervene. 

Meanwhile, Shimizu takes a few herbs and other ingredients, leaves it in a mortar, adds droplets of a weird goo and grinds it with the pestle. Kageyama talks a bit more with Tanaka before going back to Shouyou.

“Look. I don’t know how to explain this yet, but please, you have to trust me and do exactly as I say.” He’s serious, maybe too serious. Shouyou gulps and nods. “I’ll try to see what those guys want from me, but I don’t want you there just in case things turn… bad.”

“Hold on. If you’re in danger, shouldn’t I stay with you in case you need help?” Shouyou isn’t happy with stepping aside and leaving him on his own. 

“I don’t think you can help with this. So, take those things to my apartment and stay there until I come back.” 

Shimizu presents Shouyou a glass of the concoction she was making. “Drink this.” At the face Shouyou makes, she smiles assuringly. “I promise it’s safe.”

“This will turn you invisible for half an hour. Enough time to get on a train and be back home, but you need to be quick,” Kageyama explains.

Shouyou takes the offering with difficulty, as he’s holding Kageyama’s things, but doesn’t try to drink it, he gives Kageyama a worried look.

“You’ll be fine. We’ll leave this place together, but as soon as we’re in the alleyway, you’re gonna sprint to the other end and--”

“I’m not worried about me. What if something bad happens to you?” Shouyou is bewildered by Kageyama just diving head on into a possibly dangerous situation. 

“Don’t worry, buddy! I’ll keep an eye on our friend.” Tanaka appears by their side, with a different set of clothes, more casual. “I ain’t a wizard, but can hold my weight in a fight,” he says, showing off his biceps.

Shouyou frowns slightly, looks at the drink unsure about this whole idea, but finally gulps the potion in one go. It tastes like bitter jelly. When the aftertaste hits, he grimaces.

“What now?” He asks, looking at himself, waiting for something to happen. 

“Its effect will start after I do this.” Shimizu takes the glass from him and puts her hand around Shouyou’s head, leaving the thumb on his forehead. “One last thing: be careful once you’re out, no one will be able to see you or the things you’re holding now.”

Shouyou meets Kageyama’s eyes. He doesn’t look worried, it’s the opposite in fact, there’s a spark in his eyes and a sense of security in the way he stands. 

Shouyou concludes he should trust him.

Shimizu presses her thumb hard. Shouyou’s skin starts feeling itchy, then a shudder goes through his back, and he can’t stop himself from recoiling at the coldness that seems to come from inside him. His breathing becomes difficult at the same time he sees his feet and hands start to fade. Soon his arms and calves follow, and, in seconds, there’s no trace of his body at all. 

Shimizu retreats her hand and Shouyou moves to examine himself. He knows he’s moving his legs, but feels a bit confused at not being able to see himself doing so. 

“Okay, follow me, Hinata.” Kageyama says, looking around. “Thank you again, Shimizu-san.” He adds, bows quickly, and goes to the stairs. 

“Oh, um. Thank you!” Shouyou also says, bowing even if she can’t see him. 

Before they step outside, Kageyama tells him, “Remember to run towards my apartment--don’t follow me.”

Shouyou stops moving. That makes it sound like he’ll certainly have troubles.

Kageyama goes out and into the street, and Shouyou rushes the few steps left. When he’s finally out, Kageyama has already gone to the main street. Behind him, the door closes, the sign turns to ‘we’re closed,’ and disappears. 

Following the instructions, Shouyou starts walking to the other side of the alley. He trusts Kageyama. He knows he’s a good magician, but there’s still a hint of doubt inside of him. 

_I need someone to keep an eye on Tobio._ Suddenly Kyuu’s words come back to him. 

Kyuu must know something about these guys or how reckless Kageyama is, and wanted Shouyou to be there if he needed back up. What other reason would they have for not wanting Kageyama, a really good magician, as far as Shouyou can tell, go shopping alone? 

Tanaka said he would go with Kageyama though, and Kageyama seems to be the type of guy who can handle himself in a fight too. 

And yet, the lingering seed of doubt remains.

“Ugh, forget it.” Shouyou turns around and speeds towards the main street. 

He catches a glimpse of Kageyama walking a few blocks away, and goes after him. He shouldn’t be able to see him anyway, so, after he’s sure that nothing bad has happened, he can go home. Yes. Sounds like a better plan.

Making sure he doesn’t get too close or too far, Shouyou walks carefully, trying to not hit someone or something by mistake and raise people’s attention. 

Even from a distance, he can see Kageyama’s eyes scan the passersby, especially the men walking together. Minutes pass and nothing seems to catch his attention. Shouyou’s starting to think he got worried over nothing when Kageyama abruptly stops, gaze fixed on two men on the other side of the street. From his position, Shouyou can only make out that one wears a baseball cap and the other dark sunglasses. To his surprise, the men also stare back at Kageyama, but play it off nonchalantly and continue walking in the direction of a park. Looking back at his neighbor, Kageyama is frowning, hard, face going red. Soon he’s on the move, rushing to the nearest crosswalk, seemingly not caring if he hits others and ignoring the complaints people throw his way. 

Having to wait at the crosswalk, Shouyou loses sight of the three of them once they reach the park; the few rays of sun left only allow him to somewhat see the dirt roads and surroundings. Heart beating hard in his chest, he curses under his breath. It’s not even a big park, how could he lose them so easily?! 

The street lamps turn on, one by one, lighting the roads and few people on them.

A blast calls his attention in the quiet night and soon he sees Kageyama being thrown onto the grass, not too far from where he is standing. Panicking, Shouyou runs in his direction. 

“Kageyama! Are you okay?”

Kageyama looks around him, but doesn’t say anything as the men appear again. 

“The great Kageyama Tobio finally shows up! Who could have guessed Kazuyo’s grandson would hide here?!" The man with the cap laughs. “The superiors discovered that relationship after you disappeared.”

Kageyama grits his teeth and the ground shakes; he raises his hand at the same time a big root appears from the ground and hits both of the strange men back. 

“Hinata, I swear to the gods. If you’re here, I’ll beat you up,” Kageyama murmurs before sprinting ahead, jumping over the root he just summoned. 

Shouyou gulps, but stays, gripping the bags to his chest harder. 

He doesn’t have much time to think as a boulder appears in his line of vision. With barely enough time to duck behind the exposed root, he dodges it, losing Kageyama's goods in the process and his knees scraping against the ground.

From there, his eyes grow wide at the display in front of him. Sunglasses man has a vine attached to his waist, planting him to the ground, but that doesn’t stop him from throwing another big boulder at Kageyama. The other one seems to be controlling two human-like puppets made of dirt that are attacking him too. On his part, Kageyama is just trying to hold them at bay: controlling roots to stop the rocks being thrown at him, and using a weird black scythe to defend himself against the dirt figures, but doesn’t matter how many time he slices them, the things reassemble again and again. 

The dim light coming from the lampposts barely allow him to see everything clearly, but one thing is clear: Shouyou has to help somehow.

“You’re as good as they told us!” Sunglasses man says.

“Yeah, and they say you’re almost at Kazuyo’s level, but that didn’t help the old man from having his magic stolen,” the other laughs again, smirking.

“Shut up!” Kageyama shouts, enraged. He grips his scythe harder and jumps really high, probably using magic, towards cap man, swinging his weapon down. 

A strong light surrounds the man, and when the scythe makes contact, electric rays come out of it followed by a noisy blast. Kageyama is pushed back, falling on his hands and knees.

The light disappears, and the cap man laughs harder. “Did you really think something like that would work with me?”

Kageyama waves his scythe again, but once more, it’s meaningless. Jumping back, he raises his hand just in time to summon a root and destroy another boulder.

Shouyou’s eyes wander around the place, trying to find something to at least throw at these people. He sees rocks from the smashed boulders and focuses on all of them, raising his hand and imagining himself throwing all of the pieces to sunglasses man. His arm feels heavier, but he can control it better this time. With all the strength he can gather, he gestures the rocks to his target, snapping his fingers to cease the connection. Immediately, almost every rock around them launches forward. 

Sunglasses man isn’t quick enough to stop the attack, barely manages to raise his hands to protect his face, but that isn’t enough as projectiles hit him from every direction. He slumps down over the vine surrounding him; the sunglasses, broken now, drop to the ground as blood slides over his arms

“I didn’t think you would be the type of guy to hide someone who’s helping you!” the remaining man shouts, looking around, but still holding his hands in place. Shouyou assumes each one is controlling a puppet. 

“You’re underestimating me!” Kageyama yells, and the roots start attacking the man while he continues fighting the damn puppets. 

The light shield reappears as the roots try to hit him, but nothing seems to be able to touch him. 

One of the puppets is able to land a kick on Kageyama’s back, sending him against a tree trunk. Surprisingly, he turns around in a second and slays it in half. 

As Kageyama continues his fight, Shouyou notices Kageyama’s hits becoming more erratic, his stance weaker, and even he ses his scrunched up nose from a distance. He’s clearly in pain, as well. 

“Are you feeling tired?” The man snorts. “I thought you would be better than this, honestly.”

Shouyou must think of something, anything, he can do to help.

“It’ll be easy to suck you dry of your energy in this state.” He slowly takes a step closer to Kageyama. Then another and another.

Shouyou stares intensely at the man’s feet. It looks like he’s still stepping on the ground, so the shield may not surround him completely, meaning he can do something on it to move his arms or hit his head. 

There aren’t any leaves, sticks or even pebbles on his way; could he create one breaking the ground? No, he doesn’t have that kind of strength yet. Manipule the air maybe? Never tried it before and he doesn’t want to kill the man. 

Shouyou panics when one of the puppets manages to catch Kageyama’s right arm and twist it. He hisses in pain and the scythe vanishes. 

Magic can’t intervine with the will of a person. What about his clothes? That's worth a shot. The man is using a blazer, so maybe he can yank the sleeves and make him lose focus even for a second. 

He stands from the ground and breathes, trying to not think too hard on the way Kageyama is struggling against the puppet holding his arm. Shouyou focuses on the action he wants to do and holds his hand in front of him feeling the pressure of the connection, then pulls hard on the sleeves at the same time he snaps his fingers. The man’s arms move to the side harshly, making him lose balance. 

The puppets crumble down, releasing Kageyama, who falls to his knees and supports himself with his arms, looking more angry than relieved. 

The light shield vanishes with a buzz and before cap man can regain his stance, Shouyou sprints to him, using his side to push the man back with all the force he builds up, and sends him to the ground a few meters away. 

“Kageyama!” Shouyou approaches Kageyama, ignoring the pain on his arm and ribs. 

“Dumbass!” Kageyama pants back. He tries to stand, but barely manages to hold himself up straight. “I told you not to come!” 

Shouyou can see how beat up he is up close--completely covered in dirt and nasty gashes where his clothes are ripped.

“A thank you wouldn’t--” The arm of a puppet appears at the corner of Shouyou’s eye and before he can evade it, hits him square on the face. He tumbles down and looks in horror at the man standing. 

“I knew there was someone else here!” The man laughs wickedly as the puppets finish rebuilding beside him. “I still can’t believe you brought a friend.”

“Idiot. Run. Now.” Kageyama stands up, and the scythe takes shape in his hand. Its strange consistency and darkness is not normal, but now there’s no time to lose gawking.

“There you are!” A new voice appears, and Tanaka comes into view carrying a bat. 

Soon after, a round bottle smashes near the man. Smoke rises from the place of impact and surrounds him, forming a tick layer. 

“That’ll slow him for a bit.” Shimizu descends from the sky in a broom, landing near them.

“What kind of idiot are you? I told you to wait for me!” Tanaka arrives at their side and smacks his hand on the back of Kageyama's head. 

Shouyou silently agrees. By now, he had almost forgotten more help would come. 

Before any of them get a chance to say another word, a strong gust of wind comes from where the cap man is dissipating the smoke. 

“More friends! This is unexpected!” 

Two, six, ten, twenty puppets rise one by one from the ground, making Shouyou quickly stand up. 

“Hinata, for the last time. Go away!” Kageyama yellsand storms towards the army of puppets. 

Tanaka and Shimizu look around in disbelief for a brief moment, but soon change their attention to the fight. Tanaka runs to aid Kageyama, and Shimizu hops on her broom and speeds to the sky.

Shouyou can’t move. His eyes get glossy and his legs tremble with… fear? Disappointment? Sadness? 

He isn’t sure, but without giving much of a thought, he starts running in the opposite direction, not caring about pushing other people aside. He doesn’t stop until he’s on the train platform, breathing heavily and bending over. He’s clutching his jeans like his life depends on it, hands shaking. 

A shudder makes him recoil and a cold sensation overcomes him. 

No one pays attention when a pair of shoes appear out of nowhere, then dirty pants, a torso, two trembling arms and finally a gloomy face.

As he steps onto the train, he starts thinking about what he saw and what happened before fleeing. He doesn’t regret accepting Kyuu’s request or having followed Kageyama; he doesn’t even mind Kageyama’s harsh words. He’s just mad with himself for not being able to do more.

The rest of the walk to the apartment building goes by slowly, he’s tired, more than usual after a day’s work. He just wants to shower and sleep.

The door to Kageyama’s place opens itself before he manages to ring the bell. Kyuu is lying on the kitchen counter, looking at him lazily, but as soon as they take in Shouyou’s state, they stand quickly and frown. 

“ _What happened to you? Where is Tobio?_ ”

“Kageyama got into a fight with some weird men,” Shouyou tells them, going into the apartment and sitting on the genkan, exhausted. “I tried to help--” 

“ _Stay here._ ” Kyuu runs out, and the door closes loudly behind them. 

Shouyou groans and tries to open the door, but it doesn’t budge.

Disgruntled, he slips out of his shoes, and staring at the pilled boxes by the walls of the small room, he remembers he lost the shopping bags. He rubs his temple, thinking that's an issue he can resolve later. Now, he only wants to lay down and rest for a bit.

To his surprise, in the next room instead of the desk and shelves he knows well by now, he steps into a normal looking bedroom with the same layout of his own. There’s a bed by the wall, a nightstand beside it, a shelf on the other side covered in books and a few strange trinkets, and big windows leading to the balcony.

He doesn’t have the energy to question where the storage room went, so he simply slumps on the floor near the bed. 

The darkness outside, being dissipated by the lights coming from street lamps and houses, shows him how late it has become. Taking out his phone, he notices it’s past 11pm. It’s hard to believe everything that happened in a few hours, but the sting on his cheek is proof of all of it. 

He never considered being a magic user could be so dangerous. Of course he was aware of the bad things happening because of magic, though experiencing it first hand crushes his naive expectations of just being able to do magic to make extraordinary stuff to help others or amuse himself. 

His hands become fists and he resists the urge to punch something. If he really wants to become a wizard, he needs to face reality, become stronger and be able to really help if a situation arises. He should research more about what it really entails being one too. It’s not just about doing something cooler anymore; he realizes that now. 

The sound of the door opening makes him stand up, and he sees Kyuu and Kageyama coming in. Kageyama is more beat up than the last time he saw him. He's having difficulties stepping on his left leg, is covering his right arm with his left hand, and has a black eye and bruised cheek. Kyuu doesn’t seem to care about any of that.

“ _You deserve every last wound, what you did was stupidly reckless,”_ they shout as Kageyama sits to pull out his shoes. _“If it weren’t by Shouyou, Ryu and Kiyoko, you would have had your energy stolen, or worse, be death by now!_ ”

Kageyama listens in silence. When he stands, his eyes meet Shouyou, but quickly drops his gaze to the floor. 

“ _If Shouyou hadn't come and told me what happened, maybe the department would have found you first!_ ” 

“He should’ve come here earlier though,” Kageyama comments, frowning like always when he mentions Shouyou. 

Shouyou can’t stand that. “Yeah? I’m pretty sure I saved you from the sunglasses guy _and_ the other guy when he wanted to suck you dry or whatever he said.”

“Whatever, get out of my room,” Kageyama grumbles.

“You told me to stay here and now you’re trying to kick me out?!” Shouyou is so close to hitting the guy. Forget that he’s wounded, he’s an ass.

“I want to go to my storage and get things to heal us, but, if you would rather stay, do as you please. I need to close the door anyway.”

Despite his outburst, this peaks Shouyou’s curiosity a tiny bit, so gets out of the way and lets Kageyama close the damn door. The knob shines as Kageyama turns it two times, and when he opens it again, the bedroom is gone and the room he has visited for weeks comes into view.

“That’s awesome,” he can’t stop himself from saying.

“ _Now, you two. Sit tight and let me treat your wounds._ ” Kyuu rushes past them and different things around the room float towards them. 

They jump to Kageyama’s working desk, select a few strands of herbs from the pots with their paw, and cut them with their teeth. The burner lightens itself as a pot positions over it.

Shouyou finds his usual spot that has a cushion to sit on and watches them work. Kageyama sits down beside him with a grunt.

“How are you feeling?” Shouyou asks, looking at his wounded arm. At least the cut is not bleeding. 

“Like a crazy wizard sent his minions to beat me up.”

“Sarcasm isn’t necessary, you know?” Shouyou hits his shoulder lightly. Kageyama winces. “Sorry.”

Shouyou thinks this will be the end of the conversation, but Kageyama talks again. 

“And you?” 

Shouyou raises his eyebrows in surprise. “Do you have a concussion?”

This time, it’s Kageyama’s turn to hit his shoulder. “I thought sarcasm wasn’t necessary.”

“You’ve never shown interest in my wellbeing, so I’m surprised. That’s all.” Shouyou smiles at him. “Besides my cheek, nothing else hurts, so I’m obviously better off than you.”

Another moment of silence passes and Kageyama says, “You shouldn’t have followed me.”

“Again with that?” By now this is more funny than annoying. “I can’t change what I did, but I would do it again, if I had to. I can’t leave you alone just like that.” Shouyou rests his back against the drawer. 

So, Kageyama actually cares. That's probably why he wanted to send him home and didn’t wait for Tanaka. This realization only fuels his motivation to get better. He doesn’t want to worry Kageyama, doesn’t want to get pulled aside again. 

“You’ll continue teaching me, right?”

Kageyama gives him a confused look. “Of course, dumbass. It’s the only way I can get rid of you.” Despite his words, there’s no malice on them.

Shouyou smiles to himself, closing his eyes. Before his consciousness drifts, snippets of the fight come back, and he remembers how mad Kageyama became when the men mentioned his grandpa. 

“They mentioned your grandpa… Is he okay?” He finds himself asking, not sure if Kageyama will answer.

Kageyama doesn’t say anything after a few moments, and Shouyou thinks he shouldn’t have said anything when Kageyama says, “He passed away a few years ago...” His voice cracks at the end, as if he had been holding back for a long time. 

Shouyou doesn’t have words for that. He fists his hands and mumbles a quiet “I’m really sorry.” 

By the time Kyuu finishes preparing the lotions and medicine, they turn to find the pair sleeping soundly. Shouyou has his mouth slightly open, head dropped down, hands over his legs and Tobio is leaning to the side, head resting on Shouyou’s, arms crossed over his chest. 

Kyuu scoffs at the scene, but lets them sleep.


	4. Give and Receive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Through unexpected circumstances Shouyou learns Kageyama's story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, thanks to [Anna](https://twitter.com/rinpanna) for betaing this chapter!!

“Hinata...! What happened to you?!” Sugawara exclaims as soon as Shouyou steps into the back room. 

“Ah, this...” Shouyou covers the patch over his cheek with his hand. 

After he woke up that morning to the blaring of his alarm, the first thing he felt was the sting on his cheek and then realized that he was tucked into his own bed. Memories from the previous night came to him, and he guessed that after falling asleep, someone had patched him up and brought him home, most likely Kyuu. Walking to the bathroom had been a challenge on its own because of his sore muscles, but after a hot shower, he felt a bit better. He was beat, but not badly enough to call in sick. 

Kyuu appeared then, carrying in their mouth a small pouch with a lotion bottle. They had explained that he and Kageyama had passed out last night due to the overuse of their magical energy and also reassured him that Kageyama was fine, only needed to rest. 

Before leaving for work, Shouyou applied the lotion over the ugly purple bruise on his cheek; it hurt like hell. He did his best to cover it, hoping that no one would notice, but the reaction he got now confirmed that he was naive to think so. 

“I had a little accident at home, but I’m fine. I got a lotion from a neighbor.” At least that last part is not a lie.

“You need to be more careful.” Sugawara furrows his brow, probably not buying it completely but accepting the excuse regardless. “We can’t let the customers see you like that, though; you’ll be on cleaning duty today.” 

Shouyou groans. Everyone knows he hates cleaning duty, but he knows that there’s nothing he can say to convince his boss to put him anywhere else. “Alright. I’ll go get changed.”

He quickly puts his work clothes and goes looking for the cleaning tools.

As his co-workers arrive, they all show some level of worry for him. Repeating again and again the lie that he had come up earlier, the more dumb he thinks it sounds. Luckily by lunch time, everyone forgets about it, and when he comes back from buying food, Yachi, Sugawara and Yamaguchi are intensely looking at something. 

“What’s up?” Shouyou asks, going closer.

Yamaguchi speaks without lifting his gaze from his phone. “A crazy fight between wizards is going viral. Take a look.” 

They make space for Shouyou to look at the screen. The video is quite grainy and the poor light isn’t doing any favors, but all in all it’s enough to see four figures: one is holding a scythe, two are attacking it, and the other has its arms extended. 

Shit.

\---

“Kageyama!” Shouyou shouts as he goes into his neighbour’s apartment, pulling off his shoes without untying the laces and rushing to the next room. “Did you see the news?!” 

Kageyama only glances briefly in his direction before going back to grinding something. “No, but I guess something happened or you wouldn’t have come barging in.”

“You were on TV!” Shouyou pulls out his phone and shows the video he had already prepared. “Someone recorded your fight!”

Kageyama drops everything and takes Shouyou’s phone from him, watching with wide eyes yesterday’s events from another point of view. “Crap. This only means trouble.” Kageyama sighs and ruffles his hair; after seeing a few more seconds of the footage, he gives the phone back to Shouyou.

“You can’t see your face, though, nor the face of those bad guys.” Shouyou taps the screen and the video loads again. 

The person filming seems to have done it with a phone and a good distance away from the fight. The hushed voice of the cameraman, saying something along the lines of ‘I’ve never seen a wizard fight’ is interrupted by a shout, and the figure holding the scythe is trapped by one of the other shadowy figures. The video continues for a whole minute, showing what happened until a woman--Kiyoko, if he’s not mistaken--appears in the frame and tells the spectators to please leave. When the video finishes, Shouyou looks up and becomes even more worried.

Kageyama is pacing around, seemingly in a discussion with himself by the way his lips move and his changing expressions. He pulls out his phone, types something, puts it away, sits down and pulls out his phone again. 

Shouyou thinks he’s worrying a bit too much. The video barely shows what happened clearly, so it would be difficult, but not impossible, for someone to recognize him. Besides he should worry about his own health. He’s still limping with his leg and the bruise over his cheek and eye look painful, so the rest of the wounds Shouyou saw the previous day must be just as bad.

“Shouldn’t you be resting?” He voices his thoughts. 

“I don’t have time for that; there’s a lot to do, even more if someone discovers that I’m in that video.” Leaving his phone in his pocket, he finishes grinding and places the powder in a bottle. “I need to tell Kyuu. If that’s everything you wanted to say, you can go now.”

“Mean. Is this how you treat all of your guests?” Shouyou frowns, crossing his arms, but leaves the room anyway. 

“Only the annoying ones,” Kageyama says closing the door. He turns the knob just like the previous day and when he opens it, just as expected, the bedroom appears.

Kyuu is curled over the bed, deep asleep, but at the lightest touch from Kageyama, their eyes open slightly. 

“Someone recorded the fight.” 

Kyuu’s ears perk up immediately and their eyes grow big.

_ “See? I told you it was reckless,”  _ they say, standing up and hopping to the floor. _ “Now we have--” _ Their words are cut short as their front legs give out, causing them to land on their face. 

Kageyama rushes to Kyuu and cradles them in his arms, petting their head. “You stay. I can deal with the department by myself.”

“Are you okay?” Shouyou asks at the same time Kageyama speaks, surprised by the fall.

_ “I’m fine, I’m fine. _ ” Kyuu reassures them, and slides from Kageyama’s arms, walking to the bed again. “ _ But I think I’ll stay here and teach Shouyou something. Would you like that?”  _

Shouyou nods enthusiastically just as Kageyama shakes his head in disappointment. 

“You need to rest,” Kageyama tells them.

“ _ And so do you, but both of us decided to do other things. Now, off you go!”  _ Kyuu moves their paw in a shooing motion as Kageyama’s frown deepens. 

Without a good argument to defend himself or his suggestion, he turns around and leaves. There’s a brief moment when Kageyama goes out the front door where Shouyou sees an office instead of the hallway of the building, but he knows enough by now to not be surprised by it. 

As the door closes, Kyuu makes themself comfortable on the bed, tucking their paws below their body. 

_ “Before we begin, I want to thank you for staying with Tobio yesterday,”  _ they say. 

Shouyou sighs. “I wish I could have done more.” He sits on the floor in front of them, resting his head face down over the bed, muffling his voice, “Actually… I kinda freaked out when the man with the cap summoned more puppets. In comparison, Kageyama was so brave.”

_ “Don’t say that.” _ Shouyou feels a light smack on his head.  _ “What was fueling Tobio in that moment wasn’t courage, but rage. He exceeded his limits because of that. I’m sure you did your best. Also, retreating isn't a weakness. You need to learn to choose your fights sometimes.” _

Raising his head to take a better look at them, Shouyou smiles. “You know, I realized that if I want to be a wizard, there’s tons of things left for me to learn, but I want to learn them all. I want to be able to stay if I have the choice.” 

Kyuu snorts. _ “That’s alright, but remember what I just told you: not all fights are worth fighting for. If you choose to retreat, that means you’re recognizing your limits and can live another day to get stronger.” _ They stop talking to let out a big yawn.  _ “Speaking of recognizing your limits. Let’s get started before I fall asleep.” _

After going over what Kyuu can teach Shouyou, both of them decide to try the light creation spell, which has the downside of needing the user’s body heat but works as the starting point of a fire spell. 

The first few attempts, Shouyou uses too much body heat too quickly, making an intense flash of light that lasts for only a second. The practice goes slowly, as Kyuu makes him wrap himself in blankets and drink warm tea to get back to his normal temperature before trying another time. 

It’s during one of these calm intervals that Shouyou notices some gray hairs around their whiskers and shaggier hair on their back. Have they always looked like that? He thinks that he must have overlooked those details before and refills his teacup, continuing to listen to Kyuu’s suggestions.

Shouyou almost ends up in a hypothermic state before he gets the hang of the exact way he needs to move his heat and energy to create a small sized light orb. Despite his numb and shaky fingers, he smiles, content at the small creation over his palm. It fades slowly, and once it disappears, Kyuu announces that that's all for today.

“ _ You should wait and warm up a little before going home. _ ” 

Shouyou rubs his hands together and blows on them. “Thank you... Ah, I’m freezing.”

Kyuu moves to his lap, sharing their body heat with him. “You did good, but that last attempt was too risky. Remember what I said before about knowing your limits; you can die if you’re careless.”

“I wanted to get”--Shouyou stops talking, covering with his hand a big yawn--“get it right before going home. Gosh, I’m beat.”

“ _ Hmm, maybe you’ve used too much energy in the last two days. You aren’t used to that yet, so I think you should take it easy for the next week, _ ” Kyuu mumbles, resting their head over his legs.

“That’s too much time!” Shouyou complaints, pouting.

“ _ It’s enough time for you to recover. Self care is important, _ ” they say, words barely a whisper. 

Shouyou sees as Kyuu’s breathing becomes even and their body relaxes. 

Then, his own eyes start feeling heavy and after a second of deliberation, he decides to move to Kageyama’s bed. Picking up Kyuu, who thankfully doesn’t seem to mind being moved, he walks to the soft bed and lays down, leaving Kyuu by his side. He closes his eyes, thinking he’ll rest for just a bit longer and be gone before Kageyama comes back.

\--

The sound of water boiling wakes him up, and the notion of Kageyama coming home and seeing him asleep on his bed makes Shouyou panic. Sitting up in a rush, he starts muttering an apology, but once he looks up, his words are cut short. They’re not in Kageyama’s room anymore, not even in the building.

They’re in the middle of some sort of forest… probably. There're trees, but they’re all crooked and the bluish green light they emit feels completely wrong; the ground sparkles and is soft like sand, and a few meters away, he thinks he sees something that may be grass if it weren’t for its bright yellow color. 

When Shouyou looks at Kageyama, their eyes meet for a brief seconds before he turns his gaze to a boiling pot. He and Kyuu, who’s on his lap, are dimly glowing a soft blue.

“Where are we?” Shouyou asks, crawling closer. Doing so, he notices that there’s a light orange hue coming from himself, and as he moves, the ground changes from its sandy color to match him.

“The spirit dimension. I didn’t think your soul would tag along… but now you’re here so--” Kageyama sighs, motioning for Kyuu to move, and stands up. “Hold this and follow me.” 

Shouyou takes the pot offered to him, but doesn’t get up. The spirit dimension? His soul? Surprised he pats all over himself but doesn’t find anything different. Well, besides the glow.

“ _ Your soul doesn’t change if you’re still alive; it just mirrors your body, _ ” Kyuu explains to him.

Shouyou nods slowly, taking in the new information, though his companions don't realize that and keep walking away.

He hurries to match their peace, his steps chiming loudly as his feet touch the sand until he catches up. They enter a path that has stones decorating the edges that separate it from the tree line, and the sand, along with changing to match their glow, sounds like a wind chime moving gently in the air with each of their steps. 

It’s kind of relaxing walking through the forest. The light coming from every direction is gentle on the eyes, and the sounds from their steps and those coming from outside the path, which are closer to small bells, are soft on the ears. Shouyou feels at peace.

The content of the pot on his hands pops, making Shouyou remember why he’s here in the first place. “Where are we going?” He looks back at the blue goo. It’s steaming, but the pot isn’t hot at the touch.

“Kyuu needs medicine, so we’re looking for a mushroom that has special properties to help spirits.” 

Shouyou recalls that morning’s incident. “Are you sick?”

Walking a few steps ahead of Tobio, Kyuu stays silent.

Shouyou furrows his brow slightly. “I hate that you guys leave me out of everything.” He looks at Kageyama, but he doesn’t bat an eye. “I know we haven’t known each other for long, but I feel like a third well or something when you mention stuff that sounds important and shrug it off after.”

Kyuu looks back for a few seconds. “ _ I’m sorry you feel left out… Tobio is the one that has to decide what to tell you… _ ”

“And I don’t want to talk about it.” Kageyama frowns, hard, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

“ _ I can assure you though that I’m not sick, though, just old. _ ” 

Kageyama pouts, and he looks more like a spoiled kid than an adult. 

This entire situation makes Shouyou have mixed feelings. On one hand, he wants to respect their boundaries, and he can’t force the man to talk about things he clearly isn’t comfortable sharing. But, if he gets dragged along like this, he can’t stop himself from being curious. 

The group falls silent, only the strange bell noise coming from the trees and the chiming of their steps keeping at bay the awkward vibe around them. 

“I sense a powerful magic source coming from that direction,” Kyuu says after a while, stopping and looking beyond the path to the dense forest. 

“Don’t wander off of the path, Hinata. Stay here, you hear me?” Kageyama gives him a serious look, his frown deepening.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll stay here, whatever.” Shouyou rolls his eyes and sits on the floor, leaving the pot between his crossed legs.

Kageyama holds his gaze longer than necessary, and Shouyou does his best to return the favor with a glare. When he finally turns, he and Kyuu disappear among the trees. Literally. Once they step over the stones that separate the path from the trees, they vanish. 

Shouyou hums, wondering what other mysteries this place holds. He should ask if they can stay a little longer so that he can explore.

With nothing better to do, Shouyou looks around the place. The trees look different from the ones in their dimension. Besides being crooked, most of them seem to be merging either on their branches or their trunks, forming interesting patterns and glowing different colors and intensities where they connect. The leaves have a faint lighter glow, and their shape varies from tree to tree--some look like ginko leaves, others like cherry blossoms, and others a completely different kind. 

His thoughts are interrupted by a chiming sound--it’s shorter and more high pitched than the sound of steps, but no figure or shadow appears anywhere in sight. The chiming sounds closer and louder by the second, and Shouyou stands in worry, shoulders tense, looking in every possible direction for the source. 

The noise suddenly stops, and before he can react something--or someone--crushes his face, the force of the impact causing him to fall backwards to the ground. A guttural sound comes from the blackish, bird-like spirit standing over his nose. It may not be too big, roughly Kyuu’s size or a tad smaller, but their three, dark eyes and their two pairs of wings spread on each side of their body makes them look intimidating. Shouyou manages to take a brief glance at the spirit before another figure tackles them away from him.

Shouyou breathes relieved when he sees that Kyuu is the one holding the spirit down with a paw. Kyuu hisses, showing their teeth and making a strange and high pitched cry. 

The spirit answers in a similar way, batting their wings, and Kyuu’s aggressiveness vanishes completely.

Kageyama appears then, looking as surprised as Shouyou at the display. 

“What did you do now?” He asks, annoyed. 

“I literally was just sitting here, and that bird thing attacked me!” Shouyou huffs, pointing at the spirit. “Is it normal for them to do that?!”

“Not at all. Spirits can sense us, so they prefer to stay away or hide.” Kageyama picks up the forgotten pot and leaves the mushroom, shaped like a shiitake, to sink in its content. “That’ll do.”

Shouyou glares at the bird-like spirit. “I don’t like them.”

“They probably don’t like you either,” Kageyama snorts.

Shouyou smacks his shoulder in protest, but lets it slide as it’s unusual for him to tease. “ _ Anyways,  _ is your potion ready?” 

“Still needs some time. The mushroom essence needs to simmer.” 

The steam increases, and he notices bubbles coming from the liquid. “Are you heating it? Wow! I didn’t know you could do that here.”

“That’s pretty basic stuff,” Kageyama looks over to his familiar. Kyuu and the spirit are sitting now, chatting happily. “I think they’ll talk for a while.” 

He and Shouyou sit as well, and Shouyou thinks this is the perfect chance to get some information out of him.

“How come do you know so much about wizardry and witchcraft? Did you go to an academy?”

Kageyama looks at him briefly and sighs. “No, I learnt wizardry from my grandpa. He was a master magician. Witchcraft I learned it on my own with Kyuu’s help and some of his notes after he passed away.”

“Man, I’m jealous. No one from my family knows a thing about magic,” Shouyou says, leaning back and supporting himself with his arms.

After a few moments of silence, Kageyama is the one to speak this time. “Why are you so obsessed with being a wizard, anyway?” 

Shouyou breathes deeply and looks at the dark sky over them. “Well… when I was about 7 or 8, I saw a wizard’s magic show. I was so excited after watching him do incredible things like flying and juggling fire balls barehanded”--he chuckles at the memory--“that I immediately told my parents that I wanted to become a wizard when I grew up.”

“That’s it? But that was only entertainment.” Kageyama sounds rather displeased with the answer.

“I learnt that later!” Shouyou glares at him for a moment before continuing. “My parents explained to me that it was hard to become one, that it required lots of studying, and I was never the best student. But hard didn’t mean impossible, so I begged them for books so that I could learn more about this part of our world.” He looks back at the ground, remembering fondly the day his mom gifted him the ‘Beginners Book to Becoming a Wizard’ for his birthday. “When I received my first children’s book about wizards, I was so excited to start on the road to becoming one. Even my mom looked surprised the next day when I showed her that I could make sparkles.” He laughs softly. 

Kageyama hums, letting him know he’s still listening. 

“But after I injured myself--”

“How did you get injured with a book for children?” Kageyama interrupts, taken aback. 

“I… might have tried to fly, and it didn’t go like I planned…” Shouyou admits sheepishly.

Kageyama snorts, but is polite enough to cover it with his hand.

“Anyway! She told me that I should first finish school and then apply to an academy, and I did! But I didn’t have any references or experience, so they rejected me. My family didn’t have the money to send me to a private one, and being my own selfish wish, I decided to start saving. I’ve been doing such for nearly four years.” 

“That’s a lot of time, and you’re not even sure that you’ll last in an academy.” Kageyama is frowning again, but this one is gentle, like he’s trying to understand.

“I just need an opportunity to show someone what I’m capable of!” Shouyou says confidently, smiling. “I have to confess, before meeting you two, I started to have doubts, but now I think I have a real chance.”

Kageyama stays silent, frowning slightly and glancing at some point over the trees. 

“Yesterday I realized something though.” Shouyou continues, talking carefully. “The… the little I know from the magical world comes from books, and those can’t tell you everything. So... what’s like to be a wizard or witch?”

Kageyama glances at him from the corner of his eyes, then looks over at Kyuu. “Witches can help whenever traditional medicine can’t; people treat them almost like doctors. Wizards are able to do a lot of different things, so the job opportunities are bigger. You can’t do whatever you want, though. The magical department has a list of all the active wizards, witches and magicians, and their activity, and you have to tell them everything you’re working on, because sometimes people ask for things that are… unethical, to say the least. For example, no type of magic can bend a person’s will, or… shouldn’t be able to… ” His frown deepens. “So, if they catch you doing that kind of stuff, they can ban you from using magic.”

“Hold on, if they have a list, do I need to let them know that I’m learning? I don’t want them to ban me!” Shouyou panics.

“Of course they won’t. Kyuu made arrangements so that I could have you as a familiar and apprentice.” Kageyama smacks him at the back of the head.

“That wasn’t necessary!” Shouyou rubs the sore spot with one hand and with the other tries to hit him back. Kageyama manages to catch his arm though. 

“ _ What are you two arguing about now? _ ” Kyuu joins them, curling over Kageyama’s legs.

“He hit me for no good reason!” Shouyou complaints, pulling his arm away from Kageyama’s grasp.

“ _ Tobio, behave yourself. _ ” Kyuu rests their head on their paws and, as soon as Kageyama caresses their back, starts purring. 

“Whatever.” Kageyama clicks his tongue. “What did the spirit want with Hinata?”

“ _ They were curious about his essence and wanted to see the source _ .” 

“And why would they do that?” Shouyou doesn’t think that has any sense.

“ _ Nothing you should worry about now. I managed to convince them to do it another day. _ ” Kyuu smirks, eyes gleaming. 

“Another day?! I hate you guys. You have too many secrets.” Shouyou frowns but immediately sighs defeated. 

Kyuu laughs at this, loud and vividly. “ _ I guess, we do. _ ” 

The silence from earlier returns, but it’s nowhere awkward this time. The soft sounds from the trees, Kyuu’s purring, the glow surrounding them; everything here and now makes Shouyou feel calm and relaxed. He leans back over the sand, content. 

Soon enough, Kageyama announces that the potion is ready and lets Kyuu take small sips. Their glow intensifies for a few moments after each one, and when they look satisfied, they exhale heavily, relief clear in their sigh. 

Shouyou doesn’t say anything as Kageyama smiles at Kyuu and pets them behind the ear; instead, he smiles too and closes his eyes. He isn’t sure why, but a feeling of joy fills his whole being, telling him that everything will be alright. 

\---

Nothing is alright and it’s Kageyama’s fault. How dare he not wake him up before leaving the apartment?! His alarm didn’t even go off because the battery of his phone ran out at some point of the night.

Shouyou showers in one or two minutes, puts on the same clothes from the previous day, and picks up his phone charger before making a run for the station, thanking his past self for the clean spare of work clothes and case with toiletries he keeps in his locker.

Tapping his foot furiously, he looks at his wrist watch for the tenth time, huffing. He's almost two hours late to his shift, and today of all days the train is having delays.

He doesn’t know when they came back from the spirit dimension, but once he was awoken by the rays of sun, he knew he was in deep trouble. 

And exactly as he thought, Sawamura is the one waiting for him when he arrives, arms crossed and face showing more disappointment than rage. 

After apologizing a dozen of times while trying to come up with an explanation of why he overslept, Sawamura sighs and assigns him cleaning duty again. Shouyou groans and nods defeated. 

He spends the day rubbing toilets and cleaning dishes. 

To say he's pissed is an understatement. He wants to yell at Kageyama, because at least Kyuu had the decency to somehow send him back home last time he fell asleep at their place  _ and  _ charge his phone. The only nice thing he did was letting him sleep on his bed… which may be a lot, considering they were at his place… 

Shouyou spends that morning arguing with himself over staying mad at Kageyama or not. It’s hard. Despite his flaws, he’s still nice enough to let him stay at his apartment all he wants, even if he seems displeased, he lets him have his food, he tries to be patient when teaching him … are they even friends at this point? He’s not sure he would call him that yet, but they’re past the point of good acquaintances and most definitely are more than very close neighbors. 

By his lunch break, he admits that he can’t stay angry at Kageyama, but for good measure, he’ll still be kind of pissed for a few days. Before he can settle on that decision though, his phone lets him know he has a message from him: 'I'll be waiting outside your workplace when you finish your shift today.'

Shouyou has to do a double take to ensure that he’s reading the text correctly. He is. 

Sending a short reply agreeing to the meeting, he continues with his tasks, doing them in record time, which causes Sugawara to raise an eyebrow at his diligence. Before he has the time to tease him though, Shouyou changes from his work clothes and packs his things quickly, yelling a general good bye to his coworkers as he exits the back room. 

When he walks out of the restaurant, Kageyama is outside already, leaning against the wall under the sunshade. 

“Hey! Did something happen?” He asks curiously, but before Kageyma has time to reply, he remembers his earlier decision. “Hang on, I’m supposed to be pissed at you! No one woke me up this morning, soI arrived late to work. I had to clean the toilets! I hate doing that!” 

Kageyama rolls his eyes. “You’re not my responsibility. Sleep at your own place next time.” 

“It’s not like I wanted to sleep over!” 

“That’s not important now,” Kageyama hesitates, but with a sigh continues, “we need to talk … about those guys from the other day.”

Shouyou opens his eyes in surprise. He didn’t expect this to turn into a serious conversation.

“Do you want to go eat somewhere...? Or you want to come over to my place?” he asks, thinking that they should talk about this kind of important stuff in a more private place. Why, though, did Kageyama come all the way out here instead of just telling him to meet at his apartment as usual?

“Let’s go somewhere. I know a good curry restaurant.”

They make their way down the street, in silence at first, but Shouyou is curious about the reason Kageyama reached out to him for the first time.

“Kyuu couldn’t come?” He starts, testing the waters.

“No, they needed to do something else now that they’re feeling better.” 

“They’re really busy for a cat.” 

Kageyama gives him a nasty glare. “They’re not really a cat, you know?”

“Of course I know as much!” Shouyou says, offended. “But it’s unusual for a familiar to not be with their wizard or witch. The few I’ve seen are glued to them.”

“They’re not…” Kageyama looks to the ground, thinking for a moment. “They’re not a common familiar.”

“What? Is it like those rare gachas in games?” 

Kageyama smacks Shouyou on the back of the head, hard. “What-? I’m just wondering!” 

“It’s nothing like that, and I don’t want to talk about it.” 

Another thing Kageyama doesn’t want to talk about. Could it be related to Kyuu’s sickness?

“You don’t want to talk about anything too personal, so why do you want to talk about those bad guys now? Yesterday you said that you weren’t comfortable telling me, unless the whole thing in the spirit dimension was a dream?” Shouyou tilts his head to look at him. 

“It wasn’t a dream. Gods, you want to be a wizard and don’t even know how to differentiate a dream from reality.” Kageyama talks with annoyance in his voice. 

“Tch, I already told you! My mom didn’t want me to study on my own, not everyone has a master magician in their family.” Shouyou crosses his arms, offended.

“Tch.” Kageyama doesn’t say anything for a while, and Shouyou doesn’t want to pry further in case he regrets coming to talk, but when they arrive at the restaurant, he speaks again. “What I said was that I didn’t want to talk about Kyuu’s situation, I still don’t, but if you’re going to continue hanging out with me, you at least need to know about  _ them _ .” Then he goes in. 

He guides them to a table further into the restaurant. “To keep people from prying,” Kageyama comments. 

After the waitress takes their order, Kageyama leaves a small decorative box on the table. 

“What is that?” Shouyou observes the square box doesn’t have a button or spring to wind it up, yet a low melody starts playing when Kageyama touches the top. 

“A kind of music box, its sound will prevent people from overhearing us.”

“You’re taking too many precautions.” Shouyou snorts, but his smile drops as he sees the intensity of Kageyama’s expression. He’s worried. 

Once more, Kageyama sighs, longer this time, and then starts talking. 

Without going into much detail, he explains that seven years ago his grandfather, Kageyama Kazuyo, was kidnapped by an organization looking for people that could help them modify spells to make them more powerful. Because his grandfather didn’t cooperate, all of his magical energy was taken using a variation of the same spell Kageyama used on Shouyou when he first went to his apartment; this variation seems to be one of the many spells they have modified to be able to do things forbidden by the magical department. 

When he was finally found, abandoned in a field, he was weak and sick, and as the weeks passed, he only got weaker. Several witches tried to help him, but the amount of magical energy they took from him was too big, and just as when someone loses blood, there’s a point where the body can’t survive any longer. Shortly after the magical department closed the investigation due to the lack of clues, Kazuyo died, and Kageyama decided to find the responsibles for his grandfather’s death on his own. He ended joining the organization to do so.

Shouyou notices that at that point, Kageyama’s narration becomes hesitant and even if he doesn’t tell him what kind of things he had to do to gain their trust, he shows so much remorse. 

A little less than a year after he joined, in a meeting for a new odd job, someone mentioned his grandparent’s kidnaping as an example of the job he would be doing, giving some details of the time Kazuyo was held by the organization. Kageyama couldn’t control himself. Seeing red, he attacked all the people in the reunion; the surprise factor let him have the upperhand of the fight, but the conmotion immediately raised the department's attention. All of them were captured in less than an hour. 

In that moment, he realized he had fucked up big time. He had not only attacked the organization’s men, but also made them all be captured by their number one enemy, and by that moment he knew what happened to those who betrayed them. 

The magical department didn’t take lightly his involvement in the organization, banning him from any and all magical activities for four years and restricting his movements around the country for the same period of time. Kyuu was the one proposing him to learn witchcraft to have something to do while waiting for the ban to end, explaining that it doesn't need the user's energy but the one on the ingredients used. That didn’t go as smoothly as he wanted, because the people he knew that could teach him didn’t trust him anymore. Then, sadly, part of his family and used-to-be-friends started using the word witch as a derogatory term to mock him--their reasoning being that he wanted to be a witch so he could stay close to the magical department and snitch to the organization.

“Over a year ago, the ban was lifted. My bussiness was doing good and soon I decided to move here… I wanted to leave everything behind, so I could start afresh, but it was stupid of me to think the organization wouldn't find me again.” He sighs. “I guess they want revenge for what happened, and now the department wants me to let them know if they make contact with me again, so I’m in a really messy situation,” Kageyama finishes, looking over his empty plate. He looks so tired.

Shouyou furrows his brow in thought. That’s a lot of information to take in at once, but it must have been really tough to live through. 

Putting down his spoon, he finally says “You went through a lot of things … I kinda get why you got so mad after those guys mentioned your grandpa … but why tell me all of this now? I’m sorry if you felt obliged ‘cause of my complaints…”

“It’s not that. It’s more because you insist on hanging out with me and that may be  _ dangerous  _ to you,” Kageyama says, looking at him for what must be the first time since he started telling his story. 

Shouyou nods slowly, taking his drink and playing with the straw just to have something to do. 

Knowing that someone may go after him just because he hangs out with Kageyama is scary, but showing him his back and saying goodbye after he took the time to let him know all of this? He can’t do it. He’ll have to learn to defend himself.

“If you think I'll turn away now, you're wrong. Running now would only prove I’m not ready to be a proper wizard. So, you'll have to put up with me for a long time." Shouyou grins and shows him his brightest smile.

He sees how the corner of Kageyama's lip raises slightly, but he quickly hides his face with one hand and touches the music box with the other. The music stops.

"You're an idiot, you know?" Despite his words, he doesn't sound serious.

"You need to stop calling me mean words,” Shouyou complains, taking the final sip of his drink. “I may not be the brightest, but you’re not any better than me in that aspect!”

Kageyama kicks his shin under the table, face turning sour again. 

“I’ll kick your ass some day.” Kageyama stands up and goes to the register.

“I’d like to see you try! When that day comes, I’ll be stronger than you and beat  _ your  _ ass.” Shouyou follows after him, smiling. 

A warm feeling spreads over his chest. Despite the lingering fear for the possible dangers to come, he's confident that as long as they're together, things will be alright.

**Author's Note:**

> You can talk to me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/sweetferret) if you want!


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